2025 World Snooker Championship: Have we seen the best opening weekend in Crucible history?

The drama bubbled up nicely during the opening day in S1 1DA. Having been 2-0 down early on, reigning champion Kyren Wilson appeared to be in control as he strung together six consecutive frames to lead Crucible debutant Lei Peifan 6-2 in their round one match.

However, world number 39 Lei kept in touch by taking the final frame of the morning session on the pink. On resumption several hours later, the current Scottish Open champion stunned his opponent, allowing Wilson to score just 44 points across the first six frames of the evening to reach the hill at 9-6 up.

The pendulum swung again, though, as the title holder clung on, showing great heart as he capitalised on errors from the other chair by winning three frames in-a-row to take the contest all the way.

One more twist was to come. Not disheartened by his inability to get the job done earlier, Lei remained positive with his shot selection, conjuring up a decisive break of 66 in the deciding frame to register a big upset against arguably the player of the season, so far.

Wilson became the 20th first-time world champion at this famous arena to fall victim to the ‘Crucible Curse’.

Another feast of snooker was dished up for dinner on Easter Sunday, as a 50-year-old Mark Williams got the better of exciting Chinese youngster Wu Yize by the odd couple of frames.

In a match where there was 29 years between the two contestants, Williams led at the end of the opening session 5-4 after Wu had briefly got in front having been 3-0 down. In the concluding session, Wu - who reached the final of both the English and Scottish Opens this season - took four of the first six frames to retake the lead at 8-7.

In frame 16, Wu committed a crucial error whilst on a break of 61, missing the final red with the extended rest when within a few pots of a two-frame buffer. Three-time champion Williams accepted the invitation and didn’t look back, pinching that frame on the final black, before pretty much freezing out Wu in the next two frames for a 10-8 win.

Williams became the oldest player in 15 years to win a match at the Crucible.

Sunday’s evening session delivered a double dose of drama. On the left side of the arena as the television cameras see it, Iran’s number one Hossein Vafaei showed his passion and joy at ousting number 11 seed Barry Hawkins 10-9 in a gripping contest.

Vafaei was behind by two frames on four separate occasions during the contest, but he dug in, and fashioned four century breaks - 123, 104, 107 and 110 - as he stuck with this season’s UK Championship runner-up.

Hawkins had an opportunity to get it won in frame 18, but after a misjudged cannon on the final red, and a botched attempt at a long pot on it later on, Vafaei got the points he needed - including a incredible pot and position from green to brown - to force the tie to a nineteenth frame.

There, Vafaei kept his cool - although he was unable to contain his happiness and relief by celebrating with several balls still to pot - with a 73 break to win only his second match at the Crucible.

Whilst that was Hossein’s second, Chris Wakelin scored his first as he resisted a big comeback from Neil Robertson on the other side of the wall.

World number 20 Wakelin built up a sizeable 7-2 lead over Robertson during their first session, taking the final frame on the final black for the five-frame overnight advantage.

Returning the next day, though, it began to go very wrong for this season’s International Championship runner-up as 2010 champion Robertson mounted a charge, winning the opening five frames of the night - a streak that started with a 117 - to draw level at 7-7.

Wakelin steadied the ship and went back in front at 8-7 with an effort of 90, but Australia’s number one replied again with frame 16.

But Wakelin managed to deposit the next two frames - including an action-packed frame 18 - to reach the last 16 of this Championship for the first time in his career.

Elsewhere during the weekend, former UK Champion Zhao Xintong - who was making his Crucible return following the expiration of his ban from the sport back in September - struck a break of 142 as he established a 7-2 lead over last year’s runner-up Jak Jones in the opening session of their round one match.

Number eight seed Mark Allen turned around a 3-0 deficit to lead qualifier Fan Zhengyi, 5-4. Those two matches both resume and conclude on Monday.

The other player to progress to round two was Xiao Guodong, who dispatched Matthew Selt 10-4, in the only ‘comfortable’ verdict of the main draw stages, so far.

Please visit our 2025 World Snooker Championship tournament information centre here for details on the draw, results, format and order of play.