World Snooker Championship 2021: Will Ronnie O'Sullivan and Judd Trump meet in world final?

ByEurosport

Updated 24/03/2021 at 15:20 GMT

World champion Ronnie O'Sullivan and world number one Judd Trump could meet in the Crucible final with all top 16 seeds for the event already confirmed. O'Sullivan is top seed and will open the event on Saturday 17 April at 10am (LIVE on Eurosport) with 2019 winner Trump in the other half of the draw as number two seed. It means the duo are seeded to meet in the best-of-35 frame final on 2/3 May.

Ronnie O'Sullivan and Judd Trump

Image credit: Getty Images

Ronnie O'Sullivan and Judd Trump could meet in the World Championship final in early May with the top 16 seeds for the £2,395,000 event already confirmed.

In keeping with tradition, defending six-times champion O'Sullivan is the top seed and will open the 45th staging of the sport's biggest event in Sheffield against a qualifier over the best-of-19 frames at 10am on Saturday 17 April before concluding his first-round match from 7pm later that night.

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World number one Trump is in the bottom half of the draw and is guaranteed to be seeded two no matter what happens in this week's Tour Championship involving the top eight on the one-year list.

Trump and O'Sullivan have met only once at the World Championship with O'Sullivan enjoying a 17-11 win in the 2013 semi-finals on his way to claiming his fifth title at the Crucible eight years ago.

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2020 semi-finalist Anthony McGill will be seeded 16th and could face a potential second-round meeting with O'Sullivan providing both men win their respective openers in the chase for the £500,000 first prize.

2005 world champion Shaun Murphy's total prize money haul of £473,500 means he is certain to be seeded seventh for this year's event which leaves him in the bottom half of the draw alongside 2019 winner Trump.

Jack Lisowski will be seeded 14th following his 10-5 defeat to Neil Robertson in the last eight of the Tour championship on Tuesday and joins 2019 world semi-finalist David Gilbert in the bottom half of the draw.

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The other seedings are not yet confirmed with Mark Selby, Neil Robertson, John Higgins, Kyren Wilson, Stephen Maguire, Ding Junhui, Yan Bingtao, Mark Williams, Mark Allen and Barry Hawkins waiting to learn which side of the draw they will be on following the conclusion of the Tour Championship.

The qualifiers for the event run between 5-14 April at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield with 2015 world champion Stuart Bingham, 2006 winner Graeme Dott and two-times finalist Ali Carter among the men forced to negotiate their path back to the Crucible.

Seven-times world champion Stephen Hendry faces six-times runner-up Jimmy White – who he defeated in four world finals in the 1990s – in the first round of qualifying over the best-of-11 frames at 7.30pm on Tuesday 6 April.

Provisional Crucible seedings (bold denotes fixed position)