So here we are again the qualifiers start on Wednesday and the draw was made today
The top 15 automatically qualify for Sheffield(It would be top 16 but Ali Carter was guaranteed a place due to his health issues)
First time a female has been allowed to enter as 10 times female champion Reanne Evans is in the qualifiers, would be interesting if she gets trough to Sheffield and faces Mark Allen(They used to be together and have a daughter together)
Also any former world champion who is not currently on tour was given permission to enter, which has lead to Dennis Taylor, John Parrott, Terry Griffiths and Stephen Hendry all say a number of times throughout the year they would enter and you can't say no to an opportunity to play at Sheffield, Even Cliff Thorburn when he was in Blackpool for the seniors said he would if he could get over from Canada, well only Steve Davis has taken up this chance.
so the draw for the first qualifying round is(My Picks are in Bold):
Michael White V Steven Hallworth
Craig Steadman V Rhys Clark
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh V Barry Pinches
Jamie Burnett V Alex Borg
Mark King V Michael Leslie
Marcus Campbell V Ivaylo Pekov
Cao Yupeng V Ross Muir
Anthony McGill V Hossein Vafaei Ayouri
Martin Gould V Adam Duffy
Sam Baird V Tony Drago
Rory McLeod V Tian Pengfei
Jamie Jones V Ashley Carty
Gerard Greene V Elliot Slessor
Alfie Burdon V Mitchell Mann
Lyu Haotian V Andrew Pagett
Alan McManus V Michael Wasley
Ryan Day V Jamie Rhys Clarke
Alex Davies V Michael Georgiou
Aditya Mehta V Jak Jones
Jack Lisowski V Allan Taylor
Gary Wilson V Eden Sharav
Li Hang V Chris Melling
Stuart Carrington V Joel Walker
Peter Ebdon V Lu Ning
Ben Woollaston V Sean O'Sullivan
Robin Hull V Martin Mccrudden
Nigel Bond V Igor Figueiredo (Tight one to call but think Igor might just edge through)
Rod Lawler V Michael Tomlinson
Mike Dunn V Itaro Santos
Yu De Lu V Hans Blanckaert
Fraser Patrick V Brandon Sargeant
Graeme Dott V Mark Owens
Mark Davis V Joe O'Connor
Oliver Lines V Ian Glover
David Morris V Lee Walker
Ken Doherty V Reanne Evans (Unfortunately for Reanne it might be tough for her against former former World Champion Doherty)
Matthew Stevens V Ahmed Saif
Peter Lines V Rodion Judin
Joe Swail V Aexander Ursenbache
Dominic Dale V John J Astley
Fergal O'Brien V Hammad Miah
Chris Wakelin V Nico Elton
Jamie Cope V Steve Davis (Might Heart says Davis but my head says Cope)
Kurt Maflin V David Grace
Mark Joyce V Ian Burns
Anthony Hamilton V Zhang Anda
Zhou Yuelong V Zak Surety
Liang Wenbo V Chris Norbury
XIao Guodong V Ong Jia Jun
Liam Highfield V Oliver Brown
Kyren Wilson V Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon
Jimmy Robertson V Chuan Leong Thor
Dechawat(Jack) Poomjaeng V Daniel Wells
Robbie Williams V Lee Page
Noppon Saengkham V Lukas Kleckers
Michael Holt V Sydney Wilson
Matthew Selt V Lyu Chenwei
Jimmy White V James Wattana
Tom Ford V Andrew Norman
David Gilbert V George Pragnall
Luca Brecel V Saqib Nasir
Andrew Higginsons V Scott Donaldson
James Cahill V Darryl Hill
Robert Milkins V William Lemons
A few people I would like to mention and look out for:
Gary Wilson ranked 56 in the world, has beat Neil Robertson to reach the Welsh Open quarters and Ding to reach the China Open final in recent months
Kyren Wilson ranked 59 in the world, Made his crucible debut last year and played well against Ricky Walden
Luca Brecel ranked 46 in the world, a young player who has had so said about him over the last few years, and might finally be about to live up to his promise
Dechawat Poomjaeng ranked 37 in the world, doubt he will win much but he will entertain the crowd, last time he was at the crucible he played one shot with his eyes closed
and finally
Peter(64) and Oliver(76) Lines will have their own battle as to who can get furthest as Peter is Oliver's dad and Oliver beat Mark Selby 6-4 from 4-0 down earlier in the season