Targeting an eighth World title:

"It'd be great. I'd love to get to nine to ten possibly. Everyone's talking about eight. But I'm thinking when I get to eight, I'm going to want to get to nine. When I get to nine, I'm going to want to get to ten. I try not to put a number on it. I always like to keep an open mind. I always have a five-year plan. I never think I need to win it this year. I think I've got five years, if I can win it once, twice, three times in five years. That's been a good five years.

"I don't have to win the World Championship every year. It'd be nice. But it's not possible. And so sometimes I'll win it, twice on the bounce, like I did in 2012-13. And then I didn't win it for another seven years. But then I won it in 2022. So, they kind of come in bunches. There were six, seven years where I didn't win it. But it didn't stop me from working hard and working towards winning another one.

His biggest competitors at the World Championships: 

"There are so many good players around like Murphy, Judd, Neil Robertson, John Higgins, Williams, Ding Junhui. They're such good players and like you see, Shaun Murphy beat Mark Selby in the last tournament. He beat him in the tournament before.

"Everyone's kind of beating each other. So, it's really difficult to say this one, that one. There’s some really, really fantastic players. Selby’s done great – he’s won a lot of tournaments. He's definitely up there.

On feeling pressure ahead of the World Championship:

"You always feel pressure. It's a big tournament. It’s the World Championships. It’s a long tournament. It's going to be tough. The longer you're in it, the tougher it is sometimes. It's never easy.

"If I get to the quarterfinals, I'm happy to play anybody because I'm going to give them a tough game and if questions are asked, can you deliver it under pressure?  They're all the sort of things that matter with Sheffield. It’s not about form.

"It’s about can you deal with pressure when it matters? I'm confident that I'm able to play with any type of pressure. You have to be realistic sometimes. Nobody can play well all the time, but what you can do is compete. So, I'll go there, and I'll try my best. And you hope to find some form, but no, other people's expectations, it doesn't affect me. I have high expectations of myself.

The importance of form going into the World Championships:

"If you're Shaun Murphy at the moment, you’re feeling really good about Sheffield because your game is good, and you've won some big tournaments recently. He’s going to feel confident, but come the quarterfinals - if I'm in the quarterfinals, I’m alright.

"It doesn't matter what's going on in the season ahead. I’ve had two matches, I'm up to speed. The World Championships becomes more of a mental thing. Can you handle the pressure? Can you handle the pressure when it gets very tense? That's something I like to think I'm quite good at.

"I'm excited that if I can win two matches, which should be hard. The first match is always the hardest at the World Championships. Anyone can lose the first round. But once you get through that match, the second match is equally hard because if you don't win it, you probably were never going to win the World Championship. But if you get through that second match and you get into the quarterfinals, then it becomes a different tournament.

"It sorts the men from the boys. So, for me, the first two rounds are where I need to get through and that goes for all the other top players as well. They're the hardest games.

On preparing for the big tournaments:

"I don't think you prepare for any tournament really. You spend your whole life playing snooker. You spend your whole life learning. You spend your whole life competing. You spend most of your life losing.

"If you look at the statistics, in my prime I might have won 30% of the tournaments I entered. Nowadays, maybe 5-10% of the tournaments I win. A lot of the time you're just getting over defeats and learning to sort of bounce back from defeat. Your whole life is preparing, getting better, getting stronger. And hopefully, at some point, you win some big events along the way.

On still getting excited by the World Championships:

"Obviously, it's a big tournament. You always want to be feeling good going into Sheffield. It's a lot different to when I was a kid. Your first appearance, your second appearance, you kind of get maybe a bit too excited. I think now I'm less excited but more prepared for the task ahead. 

"I kind of go there a bit more business-like. Whereas when I was younger, I was just like, “Oh, I just want to be there.” I was excited by the whole thing. Now I'm excited but I also keep my feet much more on the ground and go there to do a good job rather than excited.

Discussing his recent elbow injury:

"It feels better. I had some stuff done on it a few days ago. And yes, it's feeling much better now.