Mark Selby will begin his defence of the World Snooker Championship against the Norway-based outsider Kurt Maflinon Saturday but confusion over Thursday’s first-round draw forced him to confirm the identity of his opponent with a snooker blogger on Twitter.
The draw was originally meant to be broadcast live on YouTube but footage failed to materialise, forcing players and fans to rely on the Twitter feeds of World Snooker and BBC Snooker for news of the 16 pairings. Much head-scratching ensued, with the two feeds announcing conflicting and contradictory match-ups within seconds of each other.
Once the cyber-dust settled, Selby had it confirmed that he was definitely pitted against Maflin, the world No38, but only after he had tweeted a snooker enthusiast going by the handle ProSnookerBlog. “Hi Matt what is going on have I really got Maflin or will it change again,” he tweeted, adding a crying-with-laughter emoji symbol that suggested he could see the funny side of proceedings.
Selby travels to the Crucible theatre as the latest player hoping to beat the venerable old venue’s famous “curse”. No first-time champion has successfully defended their title since the event moved to Sheffield in 1977 and the 31-year-old from Leicester is relishing the challenge. Having triumphed in the recent German Masters and China Open ranking events, he is the only player to win twice during a season that has produced eight different victors from the nine played thus far.
Despite this good recent form, the curse, along with the curious fact that no winner of the China Open has ever gone on to follow up with success in the world championship, suggests tournament odds of 8-1 are stacked against him.
“No first-time winner has ever gone and defended it, so I was never going to be favourite when you look at that history and the players like O’Sullivan, [Stephen] Hendry and [John] Higgins who have not gone and defended it,” he said.
“The curse would be in the back of my mind but at the same time it will inspire me even more and make me try even harder, because you want to be the first one to try to break that duck. This is such a tough tournament to win. To win it one time is just a fantastic feeling, to try to defend it is going to be twice as difficult.”
With the world’s top 16 getting automatic entry to the world championship, a new format means the best of the rest had to win three qualifying matches to snap up the other 16 places available. Jimmy White, Steve Davis, Ken Doherty and Tony Drago were among the well-known blasts from the past who came a cropper in the often thrilling series. The women’s world champion, Reanne Evans, also failed in her bid to make history by qualifying for the first-round proper.
The current world No16, Michael White, was also unfortunate to miss out on the automatic entry he should have been guaranteed. This was because Ali Carter had his top-16 ranking frozen on compassionate grounds upon being diagnosed with lung cancer. It meant White was forced into the qualifying process and came up short. Carter, who has previously recovered from testicular cancer and also suffers from Crohn’s disease, has been given the all clear by doctors and will take a place in Sheffield that few could begrudge him.
And so, inevitably, to Ronnie O’Sullivan. The world No1 admits to having dreamed of being world champion as a child but these days often claims to hate the tournament he has won five times. This year he will face the Crucible debutant Craig Steadman, from Lancashire, who will be hoping his opponent has one of his fabled off-days.
Earlier this week, the World Snooker chairman, Barry Hearn, hit back at O’Sullivan’s recent criticism of the amount of prize money available to players by suggesting the five-times world champion is “out with the fairies”.
In a fascinating Guardian interview, O’Sullivan described the snooker circuit’s prize-pot as “fucking shit”, only for Hearn to point out that annual prize money has risen from £3.5m to £8.5m over the past five years and will continue to grow.
“If Mr O’Sullivan, who I love to death but does have the odd day when he’s out with the fairies, thinks the money is not good, then I wish him the very best of luck in his car-washing round,” said Hearn.
“This money is good, approaching great, about to get greater. My target was always to have a £10m circuit. I thought it would take me 10 years, I think it’s going to take me six.” The winner of this year’s tournament will take home £300,000.
