Ronnie O’Sullivan: will he triumph at World Snooker Championship? Jimmy White and Alan McManus reveal predictions

Seven-time champion O’Sullivan is the bookmakers’ favourite to win the title, but The Rocket is sure to face a stiff challenge.

Should the seedings work out as planned, Mark Selby would be the man to face off against O’Sullivan in the final on Sunday and Monday.

But both White and McManus do not feel the event will play out as the seedings suggest it should.

White and McManus completed their brackets for Eurosport, and the former is backing O’Sullivan to beat Luca Brecel in the quarter-finals and go all the way.

“Why I think O’Sullivan will beat Luca and probably go on to win his eighth world title is because, in his game against Hossein [Vafaei], he was measured and focused,” White said.

“He works really hard and he’s a bit of a perfectionist, and when he’s at top form, he’s sort of unplayable, so he will keep striving for that.

“I think for sure he’s got at least another five or six years at the very top.”

McManus feels his fellow Scots will have the measure of O’Sullivan this time around.

The three-time Crucible semi-finalist feels that is the stage where O’Sullivan will bow out, to Scotland’s Anthony McGill.

McManus feels another Scot in John Higgins will beat Mark Allen in the semi-finals before getting the better of McGill in the final to lift the Silver Lady for a fifth time.

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