Ken Doherty reveals his favourites and dark horse picks for World Snooker Championship Crucible glory

Doherty climbed the Crucible mountain in 1997, ending Stephen Hendry’s remarkable five-year unbroken reign with the world title when he defeated the world number one in a memorable final.

‘The Darlin’ of Dublin’ took part in this year’s Championship, winning his qualifying first round match before bowing out to David Lilley at the last 112 stage. However, we will be seeing plenty of Doherty over the next couple of weeks as he is part of the BBC punditry and commentary teams for the blue riband spectacular in Sheffield.

Whilst talking to Gambling.com ahead the one-of-a-kind tournament, Doherty was asked about who his favourites were for this year’s Championship, and he believes that the record books may need to be rewritten, suggesting that title holder Kyren Wilson could be the first first-time Crucible champion to successfully defend the accolade.

“This is one of those years where you've got so many players that are actually playing really well coming into the tournament” Doherty said.

“We have a ‘Crucible Curse’, where the first-time winners have never come back to defend it. The closest that we've got was Joe Johnson in 87 after he beat [Steve] Davis in 86. And myself in 1998 - we both got to the final. That was as close as anybody's got.

“But I really think Kyren Wilson could break that ‘Crucible Curse’. The way he's playing, his confidence, and the way he's carried the mantle of the world champion as well as being an ambassador. He’s done really well this year, won four tournaments, and played beautifully. I think he's going to be very, very difficult to stop.“

However, Doherty feels that several players are serious candidates for snooker’s ultimate prize this year, with in-form cueists travelling to Sheffield having enjoyed fruitful seasons on the World Snooker Tour.

“You've got John Higgins, who just won the Tour Championship in spectacular fashion. Mark Selby has picked up a couple of tournaments this year as well. Neil Robertson has won a couple of tournaments.

And then you've got a few of the Chinese players. Ding Junhui has come back into a bit of form, Wu Yize too. Xiao Guodong has won a tournament.“

Ronnie O’Sullivan has confirmed that he will be playing at this year’s Championship, having not featured on the professional circuit since the start of January when he deliberately broke his cue in frustration at the Championship League Invitational.

O’Sullivan has been handed a ‘grudge match’ with Ali Carter in round one. Whilst the record-equalling seven-time champion is a bit of unknown quantity this year when it comes to where his game is at, Doherty is certainly not dismissing his chances.

The Irishman said: “Of course, we have to mention Ronnie O'Sullivan. He doesn't have any form this season, but of course, he has lots of form at the Crucible.

“He's won it seven times, he's going for eight. He's such an enigma. You cannot discount the great Ronnie O'Sullivan either."

With so many top players having had successful seasons, Doherty was asked whether it's the most competitive World Championship ever, and who could come through as a dark horse to lift the trophy.

"I think it's one of them [the most competitive World Championships ever], without a shadow of a doubt. I reeled off a lot of those names, but I forgot to mention Mark Williams as well. He's one player that you can't discount either.

"There are just so many players who are playing really well this year. If they get a little run and a bit of confidence they can do something, like what happened back in 1997 when Ken Doherty tried to win the World Championship. He was like 33/1 or 40/1 at one stage going into the tournament.

"I had no form whatsoever. So you can never discount one of those runners coming from the back of the field and causing a few upsets. But watch out for Zhao Xintong and Wu Yize - they'd be my outside tips."

The favourite for the 2025 World Snooker Championship is runaway world number one Judd Trump, who is going for his second Crucible crown following his maiden triumph in 2019.

However, Trump doesn’t seemed to be fancied by many of the sport’s top pundits. In a recent episode of the popular Snooker Scene Podcast, neither David Hendon, Phil Yates, Neal Foulds or Alan McManus named Trump as their predicted champion this year.

‘The Ace in the Pack’ enjoyed a remarkable first half to the season, claiming three hugely lucrative titles - the Shanghai Masters, the Saudi Arabia Masters, and the UK Championship. But since the start of December, Trump has not won a title, with his only final appearance being at last month’s Players Championship where he was pipped 10-9 by Wilson in the final.

Trump’s reliability over multi-session matches has perhaps been questioned. At the recent Tour Championship - a sort of scaled down version of the World Championship in terms of format - he lost his opening round match for the fourth successive time.

At last year’s Crucible, Trump suffered a shock defeat to qualifier Jak Jones in the quarter-finals. Twelve months earlier, he was eliminated in round one by Anthony McGill.

However, Trump has made three Crucible finals, and with lower expectations, could come less pressure, and a deep run.

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

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