Ronnie O'Sullivan's route to the World Snooker Championship 2026 final as Rocket looks to surpass joint record with Stephen Hendry

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Ronnie O'Sullivan will launch his bid for a record-breaking eighth World Snooker Championship title at the Crucible against He Guoqiang - but who could he face further down the line?

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The 50th World Snooker Championship begins this week in Sheffield, live on TNT Sports and HBO Max, with the top 16 players from the snooker world rankings seeded during Thursday morning's draw.

O'Sullivan, along with the other 15 seeded players, were paired with 16 unseeded players to have progressed through the qualifying rounds, which were played at the English Institute of Sport.

Crucible debutant He, ranked 47th in the world, is one of a record-breaking 11 Chinese players to feature at this year's World Championships, after the 25-year-old overcame England's Jack Lisowski on Wednesday.

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He will relish the opportunity to face O'Sullivan in the opening round, in front of a packed crowd. The 50-year-old will begin his first-round tie on Tuesday and conclude his match on Wednesday.

No first-time champion has retained the title since the tournament moved to the Crucible in 1977, so that is the challenge facing top seed Zhao Xintong, who begins his defence against Liam Highfield.

But should O'Sullivan make it through his first-round clash, big tests lie ahead, so who could possibly await him in the following rounds?

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Last 16

O'Sullivan will face either world No. 5 and four-time champion John Higgins or two-time runner-up Ali Carter in the last 16 should he come through his first-round encounter, scheduled to take place between April 25-27.

O'Sullivan has generally enjoyed the better of his meetings with Higgins in recent times, including a 6-0 whitewash to claim the John Virgo Trophy earlier this week at Goffs in Ireland.

Carter has fared worse than Higgins during his recent match-ups, and he was beaten 10-4 by O'Sullivan in their first-round tie at the Crucible last year.

Whatever the outcome of Higgins' first-round match against Carter, the second-round tie against O'Sullivan will make for appointment viewing.

On one hand, the prospect of a clash between two 'Class of 92' titans at the sport's most famous venue. On the other, a grudge match between two Essex foes whose 'shoulder-barge' incident in 2018 remains one of the great talking points of the World Championships in recent years.

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Quarter-finals

Should O'Sullivan's record 34th appearance at the World Championship extend to the quarter-finals, world No. 4 Neil Robertson could be his next opponent, provided results stay true to form.

Robertson has been drawn to face Chinese qualifier Pang Junxu in round one, with the winner set to face either world No. 13 Chris Wakelin or qualifier Liam Pullen in the last 16.

The most recent and significant meeting between O'Sullivan and Robertson was the final of the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters in August 2025, where Robertson defeated O'Sullivan 10-9 in an epic match.

The quarter-final ties take place on April 28 and 29.

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Semi-finals

This is when the 17-day competition really does start to crank up a notch as we head towards the Bank Holiday weekend, and the best of 25 frames becomes the best of 33 - between April 30 and May 1-2.

O'Sullivan is on the same side of the draw as defending champion Zhao Xintong, who must navigate a route past first-round opponent Highfield, Ding Junhui or David Gilbert, then a potential quarter-final match against either Xiao Guodong or Shaun Murphy - in order to reach the final four.

Final

There is a lot of snooker to be played before O'Sullivan can dream of yet another final appearance at the Sheffield theatre, but the snooker GOAT can at least plot this route, safe in the knowledge that he cannot face world No. 1 Judd Trump until April is out.

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The final showdown - scheduled to start on Sunday, May 3 and ending on Bank Holiday Monday, May 4 - will bring to an end the 58th successive year that the Crucible showcase is contested through the modern knockout format.

Should Zhao become the 21st player to succumb to the so-called Crucible curse, and be beaten by O'Sullivan, Trump could lie in wait for The Rocket, with £500,000 in prize money at stake.

No. 2 seed Trump will have to hold his nerve on the same side of the draw as Mark Selby, a man with four Crucible titles to his name, in a potential quarter-final clash.

Should Trump prevail, he could then face either 2025 runner-up Mark Williams or Masters champion Kyren Wilson in the semi-finals for the right to face O'Sullivan.

With this being the 50th consecutive year that the World Snooker Championship has been staged at the Crucible, could this be the moment that Ronnie goes one better than Stephen Hendry for most world titles in the modern era, 25 years on from his first?