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The draw for the World Snooker Championship was made at 10am this morning, live on the World Snooker YouTube channel, and it produced some cracking first round ties for our showcase event.
Most notabily, two-time runner-up Ali Carter, who came through three tough rounds of qualifying, is paired up against defending champion Stuart Bingham in the first round. This match, the first of two to be played on Saturday morning (10am), will no doubt be a close one and a great way to kick off the action at the Crucible.
Chinese number one Ding Junhui was forced to qualify for the first time this year after crashing out of the China Open in the first round. He only dropped seven frames across his three qualifying matches and will no doubt start favourite against newly crowned German Masters champion Martin Gould in their first round match.
 Five-time world champion and crowd favourite Ronnie O'Sullivan will be pleased to have drawn International Championship runner-up David Gilbert in his first round match. Although Tamworth's Gilbert played well in qualifying, matching the Rocket in the intense atmosphere of the Crucible will be a wholely different challenge. Many punters will be having a gamble on Masters champion O'Sullivan this year also as he is in the easier half of the draw.
Other notable ties include an all world champion clash between Mark Williams and Graeme Dott, former finalist Judd Trump facing UK finalist Liang Wenbo, and two-time semifinalist Stephen Maguire coming up against friend and practice partner Alan McManus.
For the latest results and scores from the World Snooker Championship 2016, follow Maximum Snooker on Twitter or head to Snooker.org
To find out when a player is playing, head to the BBC website.
World Snooker Championship 2016 - Crucible Draw
Stuart Bingham v Ali Carter
Stephen Maguire v Alan McManus
Ricky Walden v Robbie Williams
John Higgins v Ryan Day
Judd Trump v Liang Wenbo
Martin Gould v Ding Junhui
Mark Williams v Graeme Dott
Neil Robertson v Michael Holt
Shaun Murphy v Anthony McGill
Marco Fu v Peter Ebdon
Barry Hawkins v Zhang Anda
Ronnie O'Sullivan v David Gilbert
Mark Allen v Mitchell Mann
Joe Perry v Kyren Wilson
Michael White v Sam Baird
Mark Selby v Robert Milkins
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