Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins were yesterday handed tough-looking first-round draws for this year’s World Championship.

O’Sullivan, who has tumbled to 10th in the rankings, faces Welshman Dominic Dale, while world number one and fellow three-time champion Higgins takes on Stephen Lee.

Defending champion Neil Robertson was drawn to meet rising star Judd Trump and seven-time champion Stephen Hendry will meet Joe Perry.

Resurgent two-time champion Mark Williams, who is closing in on Higgins at the top of the rankings, faces fellow Welshman Ryan Day in another contest.

Ding Junhui, tipped by many to land his maiden world title, meets Jamie Burnett, Shaun Murphy takes on Marcus Campbell and Stephen Maguire was handed a match with Barry Hawkins.

Last year’s World Championship was marred after Higgins was caught in a tabloid sting, which ultimately saw him suspended for giving the impression he would be prepared to fix the outcome of matches.

World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn said: “What happened just focused on the changes in the world and the problems sport’s got in general.

“We’ve acted quite seriously on curing it and I think our blueprint for an Integrity Unit is something that will probably be adopted by most other sports over the next few years.”

Hearn, who has increased the number of tournaments since taking charge of World Snooker last year, was confident there would not be a repeat.

“We always needed to create more reason to play your best at all times,” he said.

“And the ranking system and the money involved has probably helped. There’s too much to lose now.

“The World Championships is our showcase event around the world, television coverage goes to something like 700 million homes around the globe, and it’s our best advertisement for all the things that are good about snooker.

“The fact that more people are buying tickets this year tells me that the British public are actually believing in the sport again.”

The draw
Cope vs Pagett; Ding vs Burnett; Higgins vs Lee; N. Robertson vs Trump; Allen vs Stevens; Walden vs McLeod; Williams vs Day; Maguire vs Hawkins; O’Sullivan vs Dale; Murphy vs Campbell; Dott vs King; Hendry vs Perry; Carter vs Harold; Ebdon vs Bingham; Selby vs J. Robertson; Fu vs Gould.