Today at noon the balls start rolling on the green baize at the Hilton Malta Conference Centre, Portomaso, for the fifth ranking tournament on this season's World Snooker Association calendar - The Malta Cup.
With less than 24 hours before the first match, official bookmaker Totesport, of the United Kingdom, made Stephen Maguire 3/1 favourite to win the 'Mediterranean snooker title'.
Glasgow's 23-year-old Maguire, who in a short spell of eight years as a professional stands at no.3 in the provisional world rankings, had his first taste of magical fame and fortune in Malta when last year he won the European Open.
This season, he has already won the Travis Perkins UK Championship and was a finalist in the British Open.
Yet, Maguire arrived in Malta in a disappointing mood after going down to a surprise 5-1 defeat on Friday night to Dave Harold, the 1993 Asian Open champion but today no.61 in the rankings.
Through that upset, Maguire will miss out on the China Open.
Ronnie O'Sullivan, fresh from his outstanding Welsh Open triumph, is 5/2 favourite to lift the Malta Cup.
"O'Sullivan must be an immediate favourite as he is in great form. But we believe that Maguire could be the man to beat," remarked Tim Pickering of Totesport.
Welsh Open runner-up Stephen Hendry is next in the betting at 9/2, followed by John Higgins (8/1), Paul Hunter (10/1), Mark Williams (10/1), Neil Robertson (25/1), Ken Doherty and Peter Ebdon (33/1), and Matthew Stevens (40/1).
Today, the first day of the six-day tournament, the programme presents three sessions comprising nine matches, four of which feature the wild card encounters involving four local amateur players - Simon Zammit, Joe Grech, Duncan Bezzina and Alex Borg.
At the initial stage of the tournament the auditorium set-up portrays a three-table layout. The noon kick-off session will pit Zammit against Mike Dunn (ranking 58), from the Wild Card round, and Alan McManus (10) against Barry Pinches (21), and Matthew Stevens (6) against Shaun Murphy (48) from Round Two.
The 4 p.m. session will see Grech playing Tom Ford (74), Bezzina facing Neil Robertson (68), from the Wild Card round, and Ken Doherty (7) against Ryan Day (45) from Round Two.
The final session today will be at 8 p.m. and presents Borg against Adrian Gunnell (60), from the Wild Card round, and Stephen Lee (9) against Anthony Hamilton (25), and Peter Ebdon (8) against Michael Holt (29) from Round Two.
The winner of the qualifier between Grech and Ford will play in Round One against Tony Drago tomorrow night. This match is already sold out.
Like Maguire, Drago is also out of the China Open. He lost Friday's qualifier to Mark Davis 5-1.
This first Malta Cup will also be a memorable occasion for local snooker referees. The 36 matches making up the tournament will be controlled by six international referees, three of whom Maltese.
These are Michael Attard Montalto, Terry Camilleri and Paul Galea.
Agreement has also been reached with Melita Cable for the Malta Cup to be aired live on Channel 48 as well as on the new Melita Sports 1 Digital Channel.