World Snooker Championship 2025: Has Ronnie O'Sullivan been handed a golden ticket in his quest to reach Crucible final?
Updated 29/04/2025 at 13:10 GMT+1
Are the stars aligning for Ronnie O'Sullivan in Sheffield this year? O'Sullivan has avoided a brutal bottom half of the draw which has run true to form with former world champions Judd Trump, John Higgins, Mark Williams and Luca Brecel all reaching the last eight. In contrast, the top half has become a green baize bloodbath with Kyren Wilson, Mark Selby, Mark Allen and Neil Robertson all out.
'I expected my opponent to play better' - O'Sullivan feels Pang scoreline flattered him
Video credit: TNT Sports
No matter how you try to slice it, dice it or pot it, it is difficult to escape from the conclusion that the draw has opened up for Ronnie O'Sullivan at the World Championship in Sheffield.
O'Sullivan was seeded to face world No. 12 Zhang Anda in the last 16 at the Crucible and world No. 4 Mark Selby in the quarter-finals, two battle-hardened major ranking event winners, but has instead landed Pang Junxu and Si Jiahui.
Wins over qualifiers Ali Carter (10-4) in the first round and Pang (13-4) in the second round were impressive, but were probably helped by neither man reaching anything near premium form.
O’Sullivan agreed with such an assertion when he told TNT Sports: "It was alright.
"I expected my opponent to play better, but he didn’t and he let me off the hook a lot of times, so the scoreline probably looked better than it was. It did not feel like a 13-4."
While Pang, the world No. 27, and Si, the 2023 semi-finalist, are both exceptional rising talents from China, they surely do not provide the roadblock four-time Crucible winner Selby would have represented if he had been facing the seven-time champion on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Without being disrespectful to the ability of the men in the top half of the quarter-final draw, it is not loaded with the level of pedigree which confronts those in the bottom half, with world champion Kyren Wilson and Neil Robertson joining Selby and Mark Allen as early casualties in a veritable bloodbath of seeds.
O'Sullivan's 'Class of 92' rivals John Higgins and Mark Williams, with seven world titles between them, meet in one quarter-final.
In a clash of arguably the two form horses of this year's event, world No. 1 Judd Trump, the 2019 winner, faces the irrepressible attacking threat of Luca Brecel, the maverick powerhouse puncher from Belgium who romped to the crown two years ago.
It is a side of the draw anybody would prefer to avoid, but perhaps nobody more so than O'Sullivan, who is trying to rediscover his sense of direction with a new cue after a three-month absence from competitive play.
He seems to be making some worthwhile progress with six centuries and 14 breaks of 50+ so far suggesting he is travelling well in his quest to reach a ninth final at the sport's most-coveted event.
"If I play my game then it is irrelevant who is sitting in the other chair," he said ahead of his record 23rd Crucible quarter-final appearance.
"I always back myself that if I am somewhere near my best then I'm confident of beating anyone."
If the snooker GOAT can negotiate a path to the semi-finals beyond Si, he would come across another qualifier in the form of Zhao Xintong or Chris Wakelin in a best-of-33 frame semi-final over Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Zhao, the 2021 UK champion, is an amateur in name only after returning from a 20-month ban for his role in a betting probe and will return as a full-time professional next season.
International Championship finalist Wakelin is a player on the rise, with wins over Neil Robertson and Mark Allen illustrating his levels of confidence.
But on paper at least, it is a preferable option than having to deal with Trump, Brecel, Higgins or Williams in the semi-finals.
When Wilson won his maiden title a year ago, the highest and only seed he had to overcome was John Higgins, seeded 13th like Si is this year, 13-8 in the quarter-finals, but nothing runs entirely smoothly over the 17 days in Sheffield.
O'Sullivan faced an inspired Stuart Bingham at the same stage of last year's event and lost 13-10 with the 2015 champion producing a level of play that he could not maintain in his 17-12 semi-final defeat to fellow qualifier Jak Jones.
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The 41-time ranking event winner also lost 6-4 to Si in the quarter-finals of the Saudi Arabia Masters earlier this season and suffered a 4-3 defeat to Wakelin in the last 32 of the 2016 English Open.
O'Sullivan is far too wise, wary and respectful of the game to view his side of the draw as a golden ticket towards a record eighth title, but there is always a beneficial route to riches in any sport.
The absence of proven winners in Selby, Wilson, Allen and Robertson is hardly the worst news in the world.
2025 World Championship quarter-finals
- Zhao Xintong (a) v Chris Wakelin (20)
- Ronnie O'Sullivan (5) v Si Jiahui (13)
- John Higgins (3) v Mark Williams (6)
- Judd Trump (2) v Luca Brecel (7)
- - -
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