Mark Allen starts bid for a second Players Championship title with clash against China's Wu Yize
Mark Allen goes in search of his second Players Championship title as he takes on China's Wu Yize on Tuesday afternoon.
The Antrim star got his hands on the title two years ago when he edged out Zhang Anda by a 10-8 scoreline in Telford.
Qualification for the Players Championship is decided via the one-year ranking list. This is cumulative prize money won from world ranking events starting from the Championship League last summer.
Allen qualifies as he his ranked 10th on the list, however Ronnie O'Sullivan pulled out and has been replaced by John Higgins.
The Players Championship is the second leg of this season’s Players Series, following on from Zhao Xintong’s triumph at the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong earlier this month.
The reigning champion is Kyren Wilson who ousted Judd Trump 10-9 in a thrilling final at this venue last year. However, the world number two and Masters champion will not be defending the title, as he failed to qualify.
Yize is the reigning International Championship holder when he beat Higgins in last year’s final, earning £175,000 in the process.
He is seeded seventh for the event and was recently a semi-finalist at the Masters, where he was edged out in a deciding frame by Wilson.
Allen and Yize have met three times on the circuit, with the Chinese cueist winning the last encounter at the German Masters last year.
Matches up to and including the semi-finals in Telford are the best of 11 frames, the two-session final is the best of 19.