2018 World Snooker Championship: Can Selby make it three in a row?
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The 2018 World Snooker Championship gets underway from the Crucible on Saturday, with Mark Selby looking for a hat-trick of crowns.
The Jester from Leicester has won three titles in total. But it’s his form in Sheffield since 2016 that has made him the most popular pick with punters this time around.
He’s in good form ahead of this year’s event too. The 34-year-old warmed up by landing the China Open in Beijing last month.
That could be ominous ahead of this year’s world championship. Selby won the same tournament last year before going onto lift the coveted Crucible crown.
He’s 4/1 to repeat the feat and move joint-fourth in the all-time list.
Victory would put him one behind five-time champion Ronnie O’Sullivan. The Rocket recently won a fifth ranking title of the season at the Ladbrokes Players’ Championship in Llandudno.
The Essex-based potter is in fine form. And that’s why he’s considered the 9/4 favourite.
Judd Trump is 15/2, in slightly from the 8/1 available on the world ranked number eight two weeks ago. The 28-year-old has reached no fewer than five semi-finals already this season.
He’ll likely have to get past John Higgins and Selby if he’s to go one further than his 2011 runner-up berth at the Crucible.
Higgins himself is 8/1 to add to his two ranking titles so far this season with a fifth world championship.
The Wizard of Wishaw has reached the semi-finals eight times since making his debut at the tournament in 1995. After a solid 2017-18 campaign, he’ll fancy his chances of improving on that tally.
There’s then a jump to Ding Junhui and Mark Williams, both of whom are available at 14/1.
The former reached the semi-final last year and the final in 2016. A final appearance in the World Grand Prix will also hold him in good stead.
Williams, meanwhile, has made 10 quarter-finals so far this campaign, winning the Northern Ireland Open and the German Masters. He last won a world title in 2003.
The latter of the pair has attracted support in the market after a sterling 12 months, which has brought four ranking tournament final appearances. He makes appeal on each-way terms.
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All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing
