As the venue of the World Championships, Crucible has always been regarded as a sacred place by snooker players. In the recent World Championship final in Crucible, O'Sullivan lifted his 7th title trophy after defeating Trump 18-13, thus joining Hendry as the best in history. O'Sullivan was followed by Crucible, the "Emperor of Billiards", Jimmy White, and even O'Sullivan's cousin Maria Catalano, who unfortunately was swept away as soon as crucible was unveiled and had no chance to go further.
After the End of the World Championships, the Senators World Championships were played in Crucible, which was the real World Championships of the Elders, not the so-called "World Championships of the Elders" that Xiaote had mistakenly entered. The first two years of the World Championships were attended by 16 people, and in 2022, it will be expanded to 24 people. According to the format, the first round will be a qualifier, in which 16 players will play a 5-game, 3-win knockout round, and the winner will advance to the second round and compete with 8 seeded players one by one. The eight seeded players who directly advanced to round 2 were: defending champions David Leay, Ken Dahdi, Hendry, Holt, Jimmy White, John Parrott, Joe Johnson and Peter Lanes.
Since O'Sullivan has just returned home from Crucible, as his cousin, 40-year-old Maria Catalano is naturally in the spotlight. As a top snooker woman, Catalano is currently ranked 6th in the world. In the previous Women's World Championships, Catalano was eliminated 4-2 by Thailand's "Mink" Nujana in the round of 16. Previously, Catalano had won the ranking tournament 11 times, and the world ranking had reached the first place. It is worth mentioning that Maria is named after Ronnie's mother, and Ronnie's middle name, Antonio, comes from Maria's father.
At the Elders World Championships, Catalano's opponent was The Egyptian Talat, who was nearly 60 years old, and as a result, he lost 0-3 and was swept away, missing jimmy White in the second round.
At present, the senior world championship qualifiers have all ended, and the opponents of the 8 seeded players have also been released. The next second round of matches are as follows:
1. David Leary vs Philip Williams
2. Wayne Cooper vs Ken Dahdi (1997 Champion)
3. Lee Walker vs Stephen Hendry (7th crown)
4. Darren Morgan vs Michael Holt
5. Val Tallaght VS Jimmy White (6 Kings)
6. Nigel Bond vs John Parrott (1991 Champion)
7. McLeod vs Joe Johnson (1986 Champion)
8. Gary Feltny vs Peter Linees