World Championship: Yorkshire’s Ashley Hugill to face former world champion on Crucible debut

The 27-year-old from York – who lives in Sheffield, just a tram ride away from the famous Crucible theatre – was paired in Thursday’s draw with the 2010 world champion in his opening match on Monday.

But having beaten three players – Dean Young, Martin Gould and Joe O’Connor – to emerge from the qualifying rounds at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, Hugill is certainly not short of confidence ahead of his Crucible bow.

“I have played well against Neil in the past so I have confidence in that respect,” said the world No 77.

Robertson won the Masters in January and has been tipped by many to get his hands on a second world title this year.

But Hugill said: “I am just looking forward to going out and being centre stage. It’s going to be nice being centre stage at the World Championship playing a tournament favourite. I can’t wait. I am just smiling thinking about it.

“I have been visualising for the last few weeks, walking down the steps at the Crucible. I was visualising that before all my matches in the qualifiers.

“Even after the Gibraltar Open finished, I was constantly visualising winning my qualifying matches, having my family there at the Crucible, walking down those steps.”

Interest in Hugill’s journey to the Crucible has certainly generated plenty of media interest, the Yorkshireman was busy taking care of interviews on Thursday. And he believes playing on Monday against Robertson – rather than this opening weekend – allows him time to prepare properly, and focus on the match.

“I am not used to doing a lot of interviews,” he admitted. “I am just trying to keep my mind on the task at hand, not all the media. I am really happy to be playing on Monday, I didn’t want to play on Saturday. It’s perfect, it couldn’t be better.

“Training is done, I am only just ticking over now. It’s just a distraction, all the media work. So get all the media work out of the way today, and then get back to my normal routine,” added Hugill, one of four players from Victoria’s Academy in Sheffield – Zhao Xintong, Yan Bingtao and Lyu Haotian being the others – who will play at the Crucible.

Defending champion Mark Selby will take on Jamie Jones in the first round while Ronnie O’Sullivan faces a tricky opener against David Gilbert.

First-round draw: Zhao Xintong v Jamie Clarke, Judd Trump v Hossein Vafaei, Neil Robertson v Ashley Hugill, Yan Bingtao v Chris Wakelin, John Higgins v Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, Kyren Wilson v Ding Junhui, Barry Hawkins v Jackson Page, Mark Selby v Jamie Jones, Anthony McGill v Liam Highfield, Shaun Murphy v Stephen Maguire, Mark Williams v Michael White, Mark Allen v Scott Donaldson, Ronnie O’Sullivan v David Gilbert, Stuart Bingham v Lyu Haotian, Jack Lisowski v Matthew Stevens, Luca Brecel v Noppon Saengkham.