O’Sullivan or two debutants best bets for snooker high break at Crucible

Even though Ronnie O’Sullivan has registered the highest break at the Crucible in four of the last 10 years, 7/1 looks too short on his chances of repeating the achievement at the 2013 World Championships.

The Rocket fired a massive 11 centuries last year too, but his absence from the snooker tour for virtually all of the season does bring concern over the state of his match-play game, even if he has been hitting the practice table.

With the standard of all players in Sheffield so high, picking the player to secure the highest break must be regarded as a bit of a lottery.

The fact Mark King claimed this accolade in 2011 and Joe Perry in 2004 does bring some truth to this statement as they would have been largely unfancied ahead of their respective tournaments.

King also hit the highest break despite going out in the first round, which additionally shows that opting for one of the favourites may not be the most prudent strategy, even if identifying a player that will reach the latter stages and obviously participate in far more frames will enhance their chances of a big break.

Sam Baird hit the highest break in qualifying with a 142 and in total struck four centuries to land a first-round clash with Stuart Bingham on his Crucible debut.

Baird could therefore be worth an each-way saver at 80/1 to achieve the highest break again in the tournament proper.

Another Crucible newcomer to appeal in this market is Jack Lisowski at 40/1, given his four centuries in qualifying and recent solid form at the China Open.

In terms of the head of the highest break betting, Judd Trump, Neil Robertson and Mark Selby join O’Sullivan as the favourites at 7/1, even though none of this trio have ever previously achieved this feat at the Crucible.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.