Five players to watch at the World Snooker Championship

After struggling through much of the previous year with back and neck complaints, Murphy has surged back to top form in 2023 and heads to the Crucible on the back of two tour title wins in three months.

Champion as a qualifier in 2005, and three times a losing finalist since, Murphy is something of a Crucible specialist and has every chance of going all the way.

Mark Allen (12/1)

Allen has shone out this season by winning three tournaments, albeit in a much-slowed style that has not endeared him to everybody, and ordinarily would be considered one of the likely contenders for his maiden crown.

But Allen’s Crucible form is desperate – despite three quarter-finals, he rarely ventures beyond the second round, and may be ill-equipped for the unique rigours of the tournament’s final stages.

Ding Junhui (20/1)

Fate sometimes plays funny games in snooker and so it is that former finalist Ding has squeezed back into the seedings after a season in which the match-fixing allegations levelled at 10 of his compatriots have left snooker’s relationship with China hanging by a thread.

Ding, who is entirely innocent, reached the UK final earlier this season, and the Tour Championship semi-finals earlier this month. What a year it would be for him to finally break his Crucible duck.

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