RONNIE O'SULLIVAN begins his bid for a fourth world crown on Monday afternoon against popular Chinese star Liang Wenbo in what looks the tie of the round.
The 'Rocket' – and his legions of fans – will hope lightning doesn't strike twice after being dumped from the China Open by Wenbo's fellow countryman Tian Pengfei last month and at a best price of 2-9 he doesn't exactly rank as startling value for punters.
But O'Sullivan has had the better of the exchanges in clashes between these two, beating Wenbo at the Crucible a couple of years ago and also overcoming him 10-5 in the final of this season's Shanghai Masters. O'Sullivan also hasn't suffered a first round exit in Sheffield since losing to Marco Fu in 2003 and he's been pretty solid the past few years, apart from last season when he succumbed to Mark Allen in the second round.
Of course, the age old problem of which Ronnie will turn up continues to haunt the minds of punters, but I'm sure we'll see the committed showman at his best, which will be bad news for Wenbo. He is 4-1 with Ladbrokes, Betfred and Stan James, and that is not the worst price ever given how good a player he is. But he has not been at his best of late, losing to Michael Judge and Andrew Higginson in the final round of qualifying for both the Welsh and China Opens and I would be shocked to see him overturn the formbook on this occasion.
MARCO FU was in total control against Martin Gould in their first session, but leads only 5-4 going into their second session in the morning after leading 4-1, but even at 1-3 with Skybet he looks, in my opinion, a pretty safe bet to come.
I tipped ALI CARTER to get past Jamie Cope at 4-6, and now the 'Captain' is 1-100 with Stan James and William Hill after blowing the 'Shotgun' away in a dominant first session. Carter needs just three frames to clinch the match, leading 7-2, and he should get these without too much difficulty.
Resurgent MARK WILLIAMS looks to have a straightforward opportunity to progress against journeyman Scot Marcus Campbell although you would need to stick the mortgage on at 1-7 in order to get a decent return. The general even money for the China Open winner to give Campbell a four and a half frame headstart should get punters interested.
One of the most interesting ties sees MARK KING versus Steve Davis, with the bald-headed cockney geezer 1-2 with bet365 and Coral to go through, while Davis is marked up at a high of 2-1.
King is the perennial underachiever in snooker having never won a ranking event and very rarely ventures beyond the second round of tournaments these days, although he did reach the quarter-final of the China Open, although he did not have the two hardest matches ever.
Davis, now in his 50s, continues to plod merrily away, but he doesn't have high expectations nowadays and in what will surely be a test of attrition with King, I can see him getting bogged down and if he doesn't get a few frames on the board early doors, then he could struggle to peg back King, who is the selection here.
