The quarter-finals of the 2025 World Snooker Championship will be played on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
Arguably the most enjoyable round of the entire tournament, a frenetic two days of action will pack in six sessions of snooker on either side of the partition and ultimately produce this year’s four semi-finalists.
A blockbuster lineup sees five among the top eight seeds still battling it out for glory in the sport’s blue-riband event.
All five have etched their names onto the famous silverware in the past, with the other seed still in the draw representing another former semi-finalist.
The remaining two contenders, who have battled their way through from the qualifiers, meet in an equally fascinating tie where a maiden semi-final appearance is up for grabs.
Let’s take a look at the four ties in the quarter-finals of the 2025 World Snooker Championship.
Zhao Xintong vs Chris Wakelin
Zhao Xintong wasn’t quite at his prolific best in the second round but still had enough in the locker to see off the challenge of fellow Chinese cuiest Lei Peifan.
The 28 year-old becomes the first player with amateur status to feature at the last-eight stage of a World Championship in Sheffield.
Despite that and with limited experience competing at the highest level in the last couple of years, Zhao will enter his fixture with Chris Wakelin as the favourite.
In fact, the former UK champion is the third favourite in the outright betting market behind only Judd Trump and Ronnie O’Sullivan.
Wakelin, though, will be riding a wave of confidence after producing a brace of standout triumphs over Neil Robertson and Mark Allen in this year’s competition already.
The former Shoot Out champion will end the season as a top 16 member regardless of the outcome here, and he is fully deserving of that stature.
Wakelin beat Zhao the only other time they clashed on the main tour, albeit under very difference circumstances in the last 64 of the 2022 Gibraltar Open.
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Si Jiahui
Ronnie O’Sullivan booked a record-extending 23rd Crucible quarter-final with a routine 13-4 victory over Pang Junxu.
Although he has played quite well upon his return from a three-month hiatus – even if he doesn’t admit that himself – it remains to be seen how the Rocket’s game will hold up when properly tested.
Whether Si Jiahui will be the player to sufficiently upset the seven-time world champion’s rhythm in a way that Ali Carter and Pang Junxu couldn’t is debatable.
The 22 year-old saved his best snooker for the last few frames of a gruelling battle with Ben Woollaston in the last 16.
Prior to his late three-frame burst to win 13-10, the 13th seed had boasted a pot success rate in the low 80 percentile, and his safety left a lot to be desired as well.
Those are usually the kinds of challengers who O’Sullivan can swat aside with ease, so Si will have to considerably raise his level if he is to match his semi-final run from two years ago.
The youngster will have good memories of playing O’Sullivan, though, as he beat the 49 year-old at the same stage of the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters last September.
John Higgins vs Mark Williams
Joining O’Sullivan in the quarter-finals of the 2025 World Snooker Championship are his fellow Class of 1992 members John Higgins and Mark Williams.
All three turn 50 this year – indeed, Williams already has – which makes it all the more remarkable that they are still able to compete at the very highest echelons of the game.
Higgins came into this edition in red hot form, with the Scot fresh off capturing two ranking titles in the World Open and the Tour Championship.
Williams, by contrast, had been in desperate form across the last few months as he struggled to cope with his deteriorating eyesight.
Yet the Welshman has played more than decent during his victories in Sheffield so far, edging past Wu Yize and Hossein Vafaei in two tight tussles.
Higgins has also been tested, notably in the last round when the four-time world champion survived an epic clash with Xiao Guodong that went the distance.
Higgins and Williams first played each other in 1994, first clashed at the Crucible in 1999, and have shared almost 70 battles with one another on the World Snooker Tour overall.
It’s a special showdown not to be missed.
Luca Brecel vs Judd Trump
If Higgins versus Williams is the match of the round, the duel between Judd Trump and Luca Brecel must surely run it close.
Two of the game’s greatest shot makers will go head to head in what is bound to be an entertaining encounter full of big breaks.
Trump completed the century of century breaks milestone for the season during his 13-10 victory over Shaun Murphy in the second round.
Brecel, meanwhile, was also in dazzling form as he thumped Ding Junhui 13-4, benefiting particularly from a lightning opening session in which he produced arguably the best snooker of anyone in the tournament so far.
The 2023 world champion will likely have to match that kind of standard if he is to manoeuvre his way past the world number one.
In his ten previous quarter-final appearances, Trump has emerged with berths at the single table setup five times but has experienced loss on five occasions too.
The closer he gets to the business end, the more the pressure will be heaped onto his shoulders as the weight of expectancy for him to add an overdue second world crown to his CV grows.
Trump holds an 11-5 advantage over Brecel from their prior battles in all competitions, but the latter won their only multi-session tie at the 2022 Tour Championship.
For the full 2025 World Snooker Championship draw, results, and schedule, click here.
Featured photo credit: WST
Major improvement on the 2024 tournament already which I thought was one of the worst that I’ve ever seen. Everything is better this year including the matchups. Very enjoyable tournament so far. I’m looking forward to the second half.