2010 World Snooker Championship Round One Odds and Tips

The first round of the snooker World Championships pits the top 16 players in the world against 16 qualifiers. The theory is that progression to the second round for the world’s top 16 should be relatively straight forward. In practice things aren’t quite so simple.

Joe Perry is one of those top 16 players who could be vulnerable in the opening round. He has had a poor season which has seen him slip to number 19 in the provisional rankings – calculated by ranking points accumulated in the previous season, added to those accumulated thus far in the current season – and faces a tough opening round match against Michael Holt.

Holt beat Mark Davis and Dominic Dale to reach the Crucible and will provide a stern test for Perry.

There is also a repeat of the 2006 World Championship in the first round of this year’s event when Peter Ebdon takes on Graeme Dott. Dott edged that final in 2006 but has subsequently suffered bouts of severe depression which have seen him slip down the rankings at an alarming speed.

The fact that he is competing in Sheffield this week is a success story in its own. But a victory here could be a step too far, Ebdon knows that if he loses his opening round match then he will slip out of the world’s top 16, losing his right for automatic entry into snooker’s ranking events.

Luckily for him he believes that he is “peaking just in time” for the event and at odds of 1.7 he looks like a good value bet.

Another top 16 player who can consider himself unlucky with the way the draw has panned out is 2008 finalist Ali Carter. He has drawn youngster Jamie Cope who has proved to be more than a match for many of the game’s top players over the last few years.

However, Carter is now considered one of the games very best players and both his playing style and temperament suit the longer format of the game which the World Championships provide.

Cope’s reputation and ability has given us a nice price of 1.75 on Carter to win his opening round match, and although it will be far from straight forward that looks like a good place to round off our opening selections.