2025 World Snooker Championship: Judgement Day final qualifying round matches, schedule, preview, how to watch

The opening three qualifying rounds in Yorkshire have been completed, and now only 32 players remain standing at the last hurdle, with a berth on snooker’s grandest stage one more win away.

The 16 winners who emerge will progress to the televised stages at the Crucible Theatre which start on Saturday morning. These qualifiers will be randomly drawn against the world’s top 16 players for round one; the main draw is set to take place on Thursday morning at approximately 08:45BST on Radio Five Live, the BBC Sport website, and BBC Sounds.

Known as ‘Judgement Day’ - with parts one and two - the final qualifying round is spread across Tuesday and Wednesday with eight matches started and completed on the same day.

Sessions begin at 11:00BST and 17:00BST. All matches are the best of 19 frames with nine frames scheduled to be played in the first session.

Tuesday 15th April - Judgement Day Part One

• Ricky Walden v Zak Surety
• Martin O'Donnell v Chris Wakelin
• Gary Wilson v Daniel Wells
• David Gilbert v Aaron Hill
• Elliot Slessor v Zhao Xintong
• Zhou Yuelong v Yuan Sijun
• Ryan Day v Sunny Akani
• Ross Muir v Ben Woollaston

Seven of the eight matches on Tuesday feature players who are aiming to reach the World Championship main draw for the first time.

Three of those players - Zak Surety, Aaron Hill, and Ross Muir - are already in unchartered territory, as they have never made the final qualifying round before.

Surety narrowly missed out on making the final of last month's World Open in China, but the 33-year-old has put that agony behind him in qualifying this week, crushing Antoni Kowalski 10-2 and then winning the final five frames to impressively defeat Jack Lisowski, 10-8.

Ireland's number one Hill has dropped just five frames in two matches, whitewashing Haris Tahir 10-0 and then dispatching former Crucible semi-finalist Anthony McGill, 10-5.

Muir has easily bested his largest payday as a professional by getting this far; the Scot eliminated this season's Shoot Out finalists Liam Graham and Tom Ford en route.

Martin O'Donnell, Yuan Sijun, and Sunny Akani have each twice been to this stage before without success, while Daniel Wells has previously been in this position three times. Thai ace Akani has come from the first qualifying round.

Another player who has already made it through three levels of the qualifying gauntlet to be here is former UK Champion Zhao Xintong who has a tasty encounter with Elliot Slessor. This is the only tie on Tuesday where both players have been in the main draw before.

Wednesday 16th April - Judgement Day Part Two

• Matthew Selt v Jimmy Robertson
• Jamie Jones v Pang Junxu
• He Guoqiang v Ali Carter
• Gao Yang v Lei Peifan
• Matthew Stevens v Wu Yize
• Michael Holt v Fan Zhengyi
• Wang Yuchen v Hossein Vafaei
• Joe O'Connor v Jackson Page

Three Crucible debutants could emerge from Wednesday's action at the EIOS, and we are guaranteed at least one main draw newbie this year in the all-Chinese affair between Gao Yang and Lei Peifan.

Reigning World Snooker Federation Champion (effectively the modern-day world amateur championship) Gao has never reached this far before, while current Scottish Open champion Lei was at this stage three years ago when he lost in a deciding frame on the final black ball to Hossein Vafaei.

Gao will be back on the professional circuit properly next season, but he is technically competing in this event as an amateur - just like Zhao.

Last year's Rookie of the Year, He Guoqiang nearly made it to the Crucible 12 months ago in his debut season, and he is back here again, although faces a very tough assignment against two-time finalist Ali Carter.

Hong Kong's Wang Yuchen has already achieved a personal best in getting here, but the 27-year-old is not ready to end his journey yet when he shares the baize with Iran's number one Hossein Vafaei, who has qualified in each of the last three years. Both Wang and Gao began their campaigns in the opening qualifying round.

Twenty years on from his second and most recent World Championship final appearance, Matthew Stevens is aiming to star on the Crucible stage again but he faces the dangerous Wu Yize who is enjoying a breakthrough season having made his first two ranking event finals.

One of the standout fixtures of the final qualifying round must be Joe O’Connor v Jackson Page, two twentysomethings who have both reached ranking event finals this seasons, and are in really good form.

O’Connor got to the final of the World Open only a few weeks ago, while Page created snooker history in the third qualifying round by becoming the first player to make more than one maximum 147 break in a professional match.

How can I watch the 2025 Judgement Day snooker action?

The Judgement Day broadcast is one of the highlights of the professional snooker season, with Crucible qualification one win away.

This year's two-day show will be live on the WST Play platform.

All the coverage will be free to watch, although fans need to subscribe to the service which involves creating an account with an email address.

Rob Walker, Ken Doherty, David Hendon and Steven Hallworth will all be part of the extravaganza providing commentary, analysis and interviews with the winning players.

Coverage can also be watched in these countries/areas:

• UK and Europe: discovery+ in UK, Germany, Italy and Austria. MAX in other European territories.
• China: Huya.com, Migu, CBSA-WPBSA Academy WeChat Channel, CBSA-WPBSA Academy Douyin
• All other territories: WST Play