Seven days in – and the last 16 line-up in Sheffield is complete

Betfred TV’s Mark Pearson

The 2019 winner, Judd Trump, saw off Iranian Hossein Valfaei with a 10-4 victory. He admitted he wasn’t at his best, but with support from James Maddison in the crowd had enough in the tank to claim a second-round place in a championship where the long format gives him time to settle nicely into the tournament.

Enjoy the press conference, in the wake of The Ace in the Pack’s first round victory

The Crucible crowd were also treated to their first quarter-finalist a session earlier than expected as three-time winner Mark Williams booked a spot in the last eight for the eleventh time, when beating his “fourth son that I never had” Jackson Page 13-3.

Despite being “over the moon” in winning his match with a session to spare, it was tinged with some sadness that he had consigned his close friend to a big defeat – a fate he’d endured himself at the hands of Mark Selby in last year’s quarters.

Williams is playing some sensational snooker, recording ten century breaks in his 23 winning frames so far at this tournament. The record of sixteen has stood since 2002 when Stephen Hendry hit that amount, but is seriously under threat from the Welsh Potting Machine.

He does however still remain downbeat about his chances, although may have opened up a can of worms when telling the media he will “do anything they can think of” if he wins a fourth World crown next Monday! Shall we order some Betfred towels then Mark??

Watch exactly what he had to say below:

Ronnie O’Sullivan lived up to his ‘Rocket’ title by blasting into a 6-2 lead against Mark Allen, and that pair will return tonight. If Pistol doesn’t manage to win two frames this evening, then Ronnie too will book a last-eight slot a session early as he continues his quest to land a record-equalling seventh crown.

Talking of centuries, we did see a record number of 44 in round one, beating the previous best of 39, and going into Friday’s afternoon session the state of play was 54, hallway already to last year’s record total of 108!

Keep knocking in those tons lads!!

#Ilovesnooker

World Snooker odds

Mark