Northern Ireland's Mark Allen opens world title bid with 'I'll always believe' rally cry

​Allen, a two-time semi-finalist who has often flattered to deceive at the Crucible, says he will take confidence from recent form as he looks to improve a patchy record in the tournament on the back of two successive second-round defeats.

“I feel like I’ve been playing some good stuff recently and I’m more confident than I was probably six weeks ago coming into this,” said Antrim’s Allen. “I’ve come here for many years on the back of very good performances and a good season and not done very well.

“I’m trying to take inspiration from Kyren (Wilson), who didn’t have the best of seasons and then won here quite comfortably.

"Ultimately if I play my best snooker I’ve got a chance, and I’ll always believe that."

Allen added: "Zhang is a very tough opponent and a great scorer, a tournament winner who played very well in qualifying.

"I'll need to play very near to my best to have a good chance against him.

"But I have a good record against him and he's never won a match here.”

The first day’s schedule also features an all-Chinese match between Xiao Guodong and Zhou Yuelong.

Xiao and Zhou are two more of a record 11 Chinese contenders but Allen believes the respective debuts of the likes of Stan Moody and Liam Pullen indicates the future of the game in the UK is in good hands.

“You can normally hand-pick a couple of qualifiers you’d like to play but you can’t do that any more,” added Allen. “Even the debutants – Liam Pullen looks like one of the brightest stars of the future, Stan Moody has been playing extremely well and won some great matches.

"The strength-in-depth of the game is great now. It winds me up that there are still people from yesteryear who still think their era was better – you're having a laugh.

"You've got players like Chang Bingyu beating Shaun Murphy with four centuries and he's not even in the world's top 32. That wasn't happening years ago and it can only be good for the sport's future.”