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The final qualifying stage of the World Snooker Championships starts on Sunday and Sky Bet have released exclusive each way, first four betting (1/5 of odds for 1st 4 places) on the event. All 48 players still left in the tournament are quoted, with “Rocket” Ronnie O’Sullivan the 9/4 favourite to defend his title. Mark Selby is clear second favourite at 11/2 and it is 10/1 bar those two.

Sky Bet have priced up all 16 final qualifying matches. Veteran Steve Davis is 2/5 to make it through against Lee Spick, who has already won three matches thus far. Former champion Mark Williams will not have things all his own way against Tom Ford and is 4/11 to make it to the Crucible. Youngsters Liang Wenbo and Judd Trump both have tough matches against old pros Dave Harold and Stephen Lee and are 8/13 and 8/11 respectively.

Sky Bet’s Andy Thorp said “Experience counts for a great deal in these matches and I would expect the likes of Steve Davis and Ken Doherty to win their matches but there is a lot of pressure of the youngsters to win through to the TV stages and I would not be shocked to see a few surprises.”