
Spoelstra: No need to penalize Ball any further
Erik Spoelstra supports no further penalties for LaMelo Ball after flagrant foul.
Ronnie O'Sullivan will face China's He Guoqiang in the first round of the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible. The match starts on Tuesday and concludes on Wednesday.
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The final of the 2026 World Snooker Championship will be played on Sunday, 3 May and Monday, 4 May [Getty Images]
Seven-time winner Ronnie O'Sullivan will begin his bid for a record-breaking eighth World Snooker Championship title with a match against China's debutant He Guoqiang at the Crucible.
O'Sullivan, 50, will start his first-round tie at the Sheffield theatre on Tuesday and conclude the match on Wednesday.
Sixteen players came through qualifying this week at the English Institute of Sport and will join the world's top 16 ranked players at the tournament.
He, ranked 47th in the world, qualified for the Crucible for the first time with a win over England's Jack Lisowski on Wednesday.
Zhao Xintong became the first Chinese player to clinch the world title when he won the 2025 event and will be involved in the first session of the tournament on Saturday (10:00 BST).
He will face England's Liam Highfield, who advanced through four qualifying rounds.
The draw was made on BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast on Thursday.
Elsewhere, world number one Judd Trump will take on Gary Wilson and Masters champion Kyren Wilson will be up against 19-year-old debutant Stan Moody.
Four-time champion John Higgins will take on two-time runner-up Ali Carter, while Mark Selby, also with four Crucible titles, faces 2024 runner-up Jak Jones.
O'Sullivan and Stephen Hendry both have the most world titles in the modern era with seven apiece, with O'Sullivan winning his first one 25 years ago, in 2001.
The 17-day competition begins on Saturday, with the final starting on Sunday, 3 May and concluding the next day - with full coverage of the tournament live on the BBC.
The Crucible has staged the World Championship yearly since 1977 and last month it was announced it would remain there until 2045, with the venue set to be redeveloped to add up to 500 additional seats.
Ronnie O'Sullivan's match against He Guoqiang starts on Tuesday and concludes on Wednesday.
This match marks O'Sullivan's attempt to win a record-breaking eighth World Snooker Championship title.
The tournament features 16 players who qualified alongside the world's top 16 ranked players.

Erik Spoelstra supports no further penalties for LaMelo Ball after flagrant foul.
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All first-round matches are best of 19 frames. Seeds are in brackets.
The first-round matches will be played between Saturday, 18 April and Thursday, 23 April.