Snooker:John Higgins will begin the defence of his World Championship title against Barry Hawkins, while qualifier and former champion Ken Doherty faces arguably the most difficult opening match of the four Irishmen who feature in today's first round draw.
Higgins, who beat Shaun Murphy in last year’s Crucible final, will get the tournament under way on April 17th in Sheffield. Hawkins will be making his fifth consecutive appearance at the World Championship.
Doherty, the 1997 champion who came through last week’s qualifying, will take on this year’s Masters champion Mark Selby in the opening round.
Fergal O’Brien will take on Australia’s Neil Robertson, while last year’s semi-finalist Mark Allen meets Tom Ford from England and also Gerard Greene faces a tough assignment against Murphy.
Other notable ties include two of the three Chinese players in the draw, with Liang Wenbo starting against three-time champion Ronnie O’Sullivan and 18-year-old Crucible debutant Zhang Anda playing seven-time champion Stephen Hendry.
Their fellow Chinese player Ding Junhui plays England’s Stuart Pettman.
Steve Davis, on his 30th appearance in Sheffield, will take on his fellow Romford professional Mark King.
Draw for the first round of the World Snooker Championship
(The last-32 matches get under way at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre on April 17th)
John Higgins (Sco) v Barry Hawkins (Eng)
Mark King (Eng) v Steve Davis (Eng)
Neil Robertson (Aus) v
Fergal O'Brien (Irl)
Marco Fu (Hkg) v Martin Gould (Eng)
Ali Carter (Eng) v Jamie Cope (Eng)
Joe Perry (Eng) v Michael Holt (Eng)
Ding Junhui (Chn) v Stuart Pettman (Eng)
Shaun Murphy (Eng) v
Gerard Greene (N Irl)
Stephen Maguire (Sco) v Stephen Lee (Eng)
Peter Ebdon (Eng) v Graeme Dott (Sco)
Mark Allen (N Irl)v Tom Ford (Eng)
Ryan Day (Wal) v Mark Davis (Eng)
Mark Selby (Eng) v
Ken Doherty (Irl)
Stephen Hendry (Sco) v Zhang Anda (Chn)
Mark Williams (Wal) v Marcus Campbell (Sco)
Ronnie O'Sullivan (Eng) v Liang Wenbo (Chn)