Robertson will focus on winning instead of worries over form

Neil Robertson is going to let everyone else worry about his form rather than how the draw might pan out as he aims to win a second World Snooker Championship title.

Since the Australian lifted the sport’s biggest prize at the Crucible in 2010, he has only reached the semi-finals once.

Away from Sheffield, though, the 39-year-old has continued to collect plenty of trophies, with 20 career ranking titles to his name.

Last month’s emphatic 10-4 defeat of Ronnie O’sullivan in the Tour Championship final has again seen Robertson touted as a leading contender to secure another world crown.

Following yesterday’s draw, third seed Robertson has been paired against Liang Wenbo, while six-time champion O’sullivan will open his defence against debutant Mark Joyce.

World No 1 Judd Trump plays Liam Highfield, while former champion Stuart Bingham, another who came through qualifying, will meet China’s Ding Junhui in the pick of the first-round contests.

Three-time former champion Mark Selby takes on Kurt Maflin, while Scotland’s fourtime champion John Higgins takes on Tian Pengfei.

Robertson, though, will not spend too much time dissecting the draw.

“The way I have been playing this season, I am not really too worried about who I am playing,” said Robertson.

“If you ask Liang, he probably won’t be too happy about the draw, whereas I am not really too fussed on who I am playing, it is about how I approach the game.

“If I play well, I think I will win. It will be a tough game, but hopefully I will have too much (for him).

“This season I have always played matches on my terms, they have always been aggressive, open games which brings the best out of me. I have just got to go out to attack as well as I can.”

Round 1 draw (seeding in brackets): Ronnie O’sullivan (1) vs Mark Joyce, Ricky Walden vs Anthony Mcgill (16), Ding Junhui (9) vs Stuart Bingham, Jamie Jones vs Stephen Maguire (8), John Higgins (5) vs Tian Pengfei, Sam Craigie vs Mark Williams (12), Mark Allen (13) vs Lyu Haotian, Kurt Maflin vs Mark Selby (4),

Neil Robertson (3) vs Liang Wenbo, Ali Carter vs Jack Lisowski (14), Barry Hawkins (11) vs Matthew Selt, Gary Wilson vs Kyren Wilson (6), Shaun Murphy (7) vs Mark Davis, Martin Gould vs Yan Bingtao (10), David Gilbert (15) vs Chris Wakelin, Liam Highfield vs Judd Trump (2).