How Shaun Murphy could play his nephew at the Crucible in the World Snooker Championship

Joshua Cooper - the nephew of 2005 World Champion Murphy - is in the draw for the qualifying rounds of snooker's blue riband event which take place at the English Institute of Sport in the 'steel city' between April 7-16.

It is the first time that amateur player Cooper has featured in the World Snooker Championship. The 28-year-old Englishman received a place in the 128-player qualifying draw as a 'top-up' due to his results at last year's UK Q School where he nearly qualified as a professional for the first time in his career.

Cooper has been invited to several World Snooker Tour events this season as a top-up. Results-wise it has been a steep learning curve for him, although he registered a brilliant victory a few weeks ago when he defeated former ranking event finalist Ben Woollaston 4-2 in the Welsh Open round of 96.

That win sent him through to the main venue, televised stages of the Home Nations Series tournament at the Venue Cymru in Llandudno where he lost 4-0 to an inspired Jack Lisowski who compiled three century breaks during the tie.

Every entrant for this year's World Snooker Championship who is ranked outside of the world's top 16 after the Tour Championship will need to go to the qualifiers - this includes former world champions Stuart Bingham, Graeme Dott and Ken Doherty. The legendary Jimmy White is also in the qualifying draw.

There are four qualifying rounds at the EIOS - all matches are the best of 19 frames - and as an amateur invite, Cooper will start at the opening hurdle.

In the first round, Cooper is set to play Pakistan's Haris Tahir, a rookie professional who earned his top tier stripes after graduating from the Asia-Oceania Q School last year.

Should Cooper progress, he would meet Ireland's number one Aaron Hill in round two, with a potential round three tie against former Crucible semi-finalist Anthony McGill following that.

If Cooper made it all the way to the final qualifying round and one of the two 'Judgement Days' he could play one of several possible opponents, although the most likely would be David Gilbert who was a semi-finalist last year.

It is a very tough qualification route to the Crucible for Cooper and the odds are firmly stacked against him, although James Cahill - who was an amateur at the time - famously qualified for the 2018 World Championship where he caused one of the sport's all-time biggest shocks when he eliminated an in-form Ronnie O'Sullivan in the first round there.

In total, 16 qualifiers will advance to the Crucible, and they will be randomly drawn against the top 16 seeds for round one. This means that if Cooper gets through, he could be drawn against his uncle Shaun in the first round.

The Crucible phases of the 2025 World Snooker Championship are between April 19 to May 5.

Murphy sends best wishes to nephew for qualifying campaign

Following his 10-1 first round exit from the Tour Championship on Monday at the hands of Barry Hawkins, Shaun Murphy did his regular social media review to talk about the match.

The reigning Masters champion said: "I haven't really got much to say to be totally honest with you. I thought Barry Hawkins was almost unplayable in the first session. It felt like everything he touched turned to gold. Conversely it felt like everything I touched went wrong.

"So it was a tough day at the office. A very frustrating day on the table."

Following his analysis, Murphy then turned his attentions to the upcoming World Championship, and wished his nephew Joshua well for his qualifying campaign.

"Really, really thinking of my nephew Joshua Cooper who's managed to get into the world qualifiers as a top up.

"Congratulations to him and I wish him all the very best for his mission to try to get to the Crucible. It's been a delight to watch Joshua's career develop over the last few years and I wish him well through the qualifiers."