Higgins braced for 'tough' opener

12 April 2012

Defending champion John Higgins believes his opening match with Matthew Stevens in the 888.com World Snooker Championship is "too tough to call."

Higgins is an odds-on favourite to beat Stevens when the 17-day marathon gets under way in Sheffield on Saturday but the Scot is not being complacent despite seeing his Welsh opponent drop out of the elite top 16.

"I can take a lot of positives from last year, I'm just hoping I can repeat the form I showed then," said defending champion Higgins.

"But against Matthew it's too tough a match to call."

Higgins and Stevens kick-off the action at 10am and will play to a finish in their best-of-19 clash in the evening session.

Other matches on the opening day see Australian Neil Robertson take on former finalist Nigel Bond, Masters runner-up Stephen Lee against Northern Ireland's Joe Swail and Ali Carter taking on Barry Hawkins.

Elsewhere in the first round, Hong Kong's Marco Fu faces China's Ding Junhui, a player often touted as a future world champion.

Ding, the 2005 UK champion, will be hoping to produce a better performance than on his Sheffield debut last year when he was thrashed 10-2 by Ronnie O'Sullivan in the first round.

Two other Chinese players are in the field, Liang Wenbo, who faces 1997 winner Ken Doherty, and 17-year-old Liu Chuang who takes on O'Sullivan.

Provisional world number one Shaun Murphy is up against veteran Dave Harold and seven-time champion Stephen Hendry faces Mark Allen. Welshman Ryan Day, who has leapt from 16th to seventh in the rankings, faces Irishman Michael Judge.

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