Judd Trump and Ricky Walden are currently the form players in the snooker world and both recent finalists explained how their training has been geared around the World Championships.
"Training has been geared around the World Championships"
World number five Trump won the last event played before the Crucible date, picking up the China Open less than two weeks ago. When pressed about being the form player, the Championship League winner explained that he is "feeling good" and his "training over the last two months has been geared around the World Championships".
Trump has one of the more difficult opening matches against world number 18 Liang Wenbo. The pair have met on four previous occassions, with the higher ranked Trump victorious just once. Wenbo's latest success came in the UK Championship just before Christmas and promoter Barry Hearn has picked it as "the tie of the round".
"Confident in a very open field"
In an exclusive interview with Vavel, world number nine Ricky Walden expanded upon his training program. "It is quite intense. I normally practice for five hours a day at home, then one hour a day when at a venue for a tournament". Walden admitted "as soon as I finish this interview I am going to fit an hour in before resting ahead of Sunday".
The China Open and Players Championship finalist begins his campaign against underdog Robbie Williams and said he "feels confident in a very open field". When asked if he can maintain his recent form of reaching two finals he explained "hopefully I can do the same again...hopefully". Walden has only met Williams twice before, with the pair sharing victories between them.
Despite hardly possessing threatening records against their respective opponents, both Trump and Walden will expect to progress to the second round and it would not be a shock if they were around the final few come the end of the tournament.