The 32 players competing in this year’s World Championship have been confirmed following days of high drama in the qualifiers.

The World Championship gets underway this Friday following its postponement earlier this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The tournament will be one of the first in the UK to allow a limited number of spectators to watch the live action at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre – meaning snooker’s biggest ever competition will not be played behind closed doors.

On Friday morning world number one Judd Trump will begin his defence of the World Championship after winning the title for the first time in May 2019.

Trump will be hoping to become the first player in Crucible history to successfully defend the World Championship title, a year after winning it for the first time.

This year will see the winner of the World Championship win £500,000.

Judd Trump is the reigning world champion. Picture by Monique Limbos

Trump’s closes rivals will be the likes of Neil Robertson, Mark Selby and five-times winner Ronnie O’Sullivan who has been rather critical of World Snooker Tour’s stance to allow in fans into the Crucible Theatre for the event.

Eyes will be also cast on Stephen Maguire following his fine victory in the Tour Championship just a few weeks ago, as well as John Higgins who has been a runner-up for the past three years.

This year will see five players make their Crucible debut after coming through the traditional nervy qualifying stage.

Those making their first appearances on snooker’s biggest stage will be Elliott Slessor, Alexander Ursenbacher, Ashley Carty, Jordan Brown and Jamie Clarke.

As well as the debutants other qualifiers to watch out for include the fast and exciting Thepchaiya Un-Nooh plus the likes of Liang Wenbo, Noppon Saengkham and two-times finalist Matthew Stevens.

The draw for the World Championship takes place at 11am today.

Here are the 32 players involved

Judd Trump
Neil Robertson
Mark Williams
Mark Allen
John Higgins
Ronnie O’Sullivan
Mark Selby
Kyren Wilson
Stephen Maguire
Shaun Murphy
Ding Junhui
David Gilbert
Jack Lisowski
Stuart Bingham
Barry Hawkins
Yan Bingtao
Kurt Maflin
Noppon Saengkham
Elliott Slessor
Anthony Hamilton
Alan McManus
Alexander Ursenbacher
Ashley Carty
Liang Wenbo
Anthony McGill
Matthew Stevens
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Jordan Brown
Martin Gould
Tom Ford
Mark King
Jamie Clarke