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O'Sullivan to start defence of...

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O'Sullivan to start defence of his title against Mark Joyce

Phil Egan
Phil Egan

12:18 15 Apr 2021


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Defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan will face Mark Joyce in the first round of the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield.

The draw was made on Thursday morning ahead of the opening matches this weekend.

Six-time champion O'Sullivan will be first up on Saturday morning against world number 46 Joyce, who will be appearing at the Crucible for the first time in his career.

World number one and 2019 champion Judd Trump has been drawn against Liam Highfield, who made his Crucible debut in 2018.

One of the standout first-round matches will see Ding Junhui face 2015 World Champion Stuart Bingham.

Antrim's Mark Allen has been drawn against China's Lyu Haotian.

Full first-round draw:

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

The World Snooker Championship runs from April 17th to May 3rd at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.


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Ding Junhui Judd Trump Mark Allen Ronnie O'Sullivan Sheffield Stuart Bingham The Crucible World Snooker Championship

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