County snooker stars to face Chinese opposition at World Championships

County snooker stars Rob Milkins and Jack Lisowski will both face Chinese opposition at the World Championships at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre, which starts this weekend.

Gloucester's Milkins, 48, is seeded 16th for the event and will face Pang Junxu, while Churchdown's Lisowski, 32, just missed out on an automatic place and had to win two qualifying matches - and has been paired with China's leading player, Ding Junhui.

Milkins opens his challenge on Monday, April 22 in the evening session, with the first nine frames, before the match is played to a finish the following evening.

Lisowski v Ding gets under way on Tuesday, April 23 at 10am, and finishes the following morning.

Former Chosen Hill pupil Lisowski has had a disappointing season by his standards, reaching only one ranking semi-final, which led to him dropping out of the top-16 seeds, but raced through the final qualifying round at Sheffield's English Institute of Sport, beating former world finalist Matthew Stevens 10-3 to earn a place at the Crucible.

Breaks of 137, 76, 80, 59, 73, 100 and 77 helped him turn a potentially tough tie against Welshman Stevens into a cakewalk.

“This is the best I have played all season, I have practised really hard for it and it’s a relief to get through,” said Lisowski.

“It’s a ‘no win’ really because I was expected to get through and I could only lose.

“I have been to the Crucible for six years in a row and I want to do well this time.

“I feel sharper than I have done all season. I know Ding got to the final (in 2016) having come through the qualifiers.

“My plan was to turn a negative into a positive.

“I have two matches under my belt now. I nicked an important frame at the end of the first session today to go 6-3 instead of 5-4.

“When I got chances I was scoring and so was Matthew, it was a really good game.”

In his first qualifying match, Lisowski fired in four centuries on his way to beating Liu Hongyu 10-4.

Lisowski put on a blistering display in the opening session, firing in breaks of 104, 71, 104, 72, 100 and 50 en route to establishing a commanding 7-2 lead and a sublime 142 from Lisowski wrapped up the 10-4 win.

After that win, Lisowski said: “My results this season have been garbage, but I’m enjoying myself more.

“That’s the goal isn’t it? Enjoy yourself and be happy,” said Lisowski.

Victory for Milkins would see him play either reigning champion Luca Brecel or David Gilbert, while Lisowski would face Gary Wilson or former champion Stuart Bingham if he gets past Ding.

Milkins is making his 10th Crucible appearance, and he made the second round on four occasions, while Lisowski is there for the eighth time, and the seventh year is succession, with his best run being a quarter-final appearance in 2022.

Full draw, seedings in brackets: (1) Luca Brecel vs David Gilbert, (16) Robert Milkins vs Pang Junxu, (9) Ali Carter vs Stephen Maguire, (8) Shaun Murphy vs Lyu Haotian, (5) Mark Selby vs Joe O'Connor, (12) Kyren Wilson vs Dominic Dale, (13) John Higgins vs Jamie Jones, (4) Mark Allen vs Robbie Williams, (3) Judd Trump vs Hossein Vafaei, (14) Tom Ford vs Ricky Walden, (11) Zhang Anda vs Jak Jones, (6) Mark Williams vs Si Jiahui, (7) Ding Junhui vs Jack Lisowski, (10) Gary Wilson vs Stuart Bingham, (15) Barry Hawkins vs Ryan Day, (2) Ronnie O'Sullivan vs Jackson Page