World Snooker Championship 2021

Gary Wilson is the first man through on Judgement Day 2.
He has beaten Steven Hallworth 10-3.

More updates to follow.....

Ali Carter through after beating Alexander Ursenbacher 10-4.
Ricky Walden through with a 10-5 victory over Ryan Day
Stuart Bingham will be at The Crucible thanks to a 10-5 win against Luca Brecel
Martin Gould has made it to Sheffield. 10-5 triumph over Bai Langning.
Great win for Chris Wakelin, 10-7 over Xiao Guodong to get through.
Mark Joyce will make his Crucible debut after a 10-7 success over Igor Figueiredo

Disappointed about Carter and Bingham of course. Watch what draws they get.

The 16th and final qualifier this year is Sam Craigie who has just come through a dramatic deciding frame to beat Zhou Xintong 10-9.

The 16 qualifiers:
Gary Wilson
Sam Craigie
Ali Carter
Stuart Bingham
Liang Wenbo
Martin Gould
Chris Wakelin
Mark Joyce
Ricky Walden
Liam Highfield
Matthew Selt
Kurt Maflin
Mark Davis
Tian Pengfei
Lyu Haotian
Jamie Jones

Jamie Jones seems to be the big story on return from suspension. Not that many "overseas" names there either.

First round draw - (seed numbers in brackets)

Best of 19 frames

Ronnie O’Sullivan (1) v Mark Joyce

Anthony McGill (16) v Ricky Walden

Ding Junhui (9) v Stuart Bingham

Stephen Maguire (8) v Jamie Jones

John Higgins (5) v Tian Pengfei

Mark Williams (12) v Sam Craigie

Mark Allen (13) v Lyu Haotian

Mark Selby (4) v Kurt Maflin

————————————

Neil Robertson (3) v Liang Wenbo

Jack Lisowski (14) v Ali Carter

Barry Hawkins (11) v Matthew Selt

Kyren Wilson (6) v Gary Wilson

Shaun Murphy (7) v Mark Davis

Yan Bingtao (10) v Martin Gould

David Gilbert (15) v Chris Wakelin

Judd Trump (2) v Liam Highfield

That's not too bad. Nice to see Wilson-geddon for once

Selby v Maflin looks an interesting match.
Obviously Ding v Bingham and Lisowski v Carter are tough looking matches too.
Hawkins v Selt could go close.

would be nice to see Gary knock out Kyren
I also think Maguire Vs Jones will be a slog

I was dreading the waffle if Bingham drew Ronnie or someone - it'll be bad enough with "he's a former World Champion, so he's a contender" - nobody who can't keep in the top 16 is a contender.

Ronnie v Joyce is fine - should be an easy win, but Joyce is too old a hand to get carried away.