Jimmy White reveals his favourites to win the 2025 World Snooker Championship

The 2025 World Snooker Championship is a 27-day event, consisting of the ten-day qualifying rounds phase held at the English Institute of Sport (April 7-16), followed by the televised stages at the hallowed Crucible (April 19-May 5).

In between these spells of baize action, the 32-player main draw - where the 16 qualifiers will be randomly drawn against the top 16 seeds for round one - is set to conducted on the morning of Thursday 17th April live on BBC Radio 5 Live and the BBC Sport website.

Six-time finalist Jimmy White has been preparing to play in his 45th World Championship campaign, but the 62-year-old has also been busy with his media engagements, working with TNT Sports as the broadcaster gets ready to televise the tournament for the first time having taken over the reigns from Eurosport in the United Kingdom.

On the TNT Sports Instagram account, White was asked about who the favourites are for the competition.

Jimmy White says Kyren Wilson is favourite for the 2025 World Championship

The Londoner feels that reigning and defending World Champion Kyren Wilson is the favourite, and that seven-time champion Ronnie O’Sullivan can not be discounted, despite not featuring on the World Snooker Tour since the start of January.

White said: “The favourite for the World Championship has to be Kyren Wilson.

“He's won four tournaments this year, last year when he won the World Championship he had no form at all.

“Since he won the World Championship he's actually improved. Fantastic temperament, dead-straight cue action, full of confidence, keeps winning lots of matches, the last frame making a big break.

“So you'd have to put Kyren Wilson to be favourite but you can never write Ronnie O'Sullivan off because he's too good.”

33-year-old Wilson has had an incredible 12 months. Within that period he has doubled his career ranking event title tally from five to ten, joining White on double figures on the all-time list of most decorated ranking champions within the sport.

Wilson’s season did not start well, though, as he went out in the first phase of the Championship League before being whitewashed 6-0 by Zhou Yuelong in his first match at the Shanghai Masters.

Some may have feared about the weight of expectation on Wilson of being a first-time World Champion, but he immediately quashed any such concerns by defeating Judd Trump 10-8 in the final to win the 2024 Xi’an Grand Prix in China in just his third event since wearing the Crucible crown.

A few months later, Wilson got the better of Trump in a title match again - this time more convincingly with a 9-3 scoreline - as he claimed his first Home Nations Series trophy at the 2024 Northern Ireland Open in Belfast.

Wilson was stopped by Trump in the semi-finals of the UK Championship on the final day of November, but ‘The Warrior’ enjoyed a brilliant start to the new calendar year a few weeks later.

It began with a run to the final of the Masters where he was denied by Shaun Murphy, but only a fortnight later he was on the top step of the podium once again as he ousted Barry Hawkins 10-9 in the 2025 German Masters final in Berlin.

Just a few days later, Wilson made another final - this time at the Championship League Invitational - but was defeated by Mark Selby who successfully defended the title.

After a few slightly unsatisfactory weeks on the circuit, Wilson bounced back by winning the 2025 Players Championship in Telford where he defeated Trump in a final once again, this time in thrilling circumstances via a deciding frame. It was Wilson’s first Players Series title.

Wilson will go to the Crucible - where as per tradition as the reigning champion he will play and complete his first round match on day one - having lost his opening round match in his most recent tournament outing at the Tour Championship to Ding Junhui, 10-5.

Of course, if Wilson is to win back-to-back World Championship titles, he will need to create history and break the Crucible Curse. No first-time winner of the title at the venue has come back the following year and retained.

White impressed by Chinese trio who could be the new ‘Class of 92’

Whilst in Hong Kong a few weeks ago when he was playing in an exhibition match with Marco Fu during the 2025 World Grand Prix held at the Kai Tak Arena, White spoke in a press conference about how impressed he was with some of the Chinese talent currently on the scene.

Speaking to TNT Sports, White reiterated those feelings when talking about Crucible contenders in the coming weeks: “I think this year you possibly could see the first Chinese player because you have Wu Yize, Si Jiahui, and Zhao Xintong.”

“These three players could be the next Mark Williams, John Higgins and Ronnie O'Sullivan - they're that good.”

It has been a breakthrough season for 21-year-old Wu who reached his first two ranking event finals at the English and Scottish Opens.

Si is now in the world’s top 16 and will be one of three players who will be a top 16 seed for the first time at the World Championship later this month.

Since bursting into the limelight when he made the semi-finals of the Crucible two years ago as a qualifier on debut there, Si has yet to win a professional title, although he did appear in his second ranking event final earlier this season at the Wuhan Open where he made a maximum 147 break during a memorable semi-final win over title holder at the time, Judd Trump.