JOHN Higgins will begin his Betfred.com World Championship title defence against China's Liang Wenbo on Saturday.

The four-time world champion will have his work cut out to get through to the next stage of snooker's biggest tournament, as Wenbo is regarded as one of the rising stars on the circuit.

"I have not had a good season, but I have come to the Crucible before having not played well and produced some of my best form," said Higgins. "Hopefully, that's what will happen this year, but I know it's going to be tough."

Life will not be any easier for the rest of the Scottish contingent competing at this year's £1.1m tournament, which runs from Saturday until May 7.

Stephen Hendry, the seven-time world champion, was drawn against Stuart Bingham, the former Australian Open champion, at yesterday's live draw in London.

Hendry had to qualify for this year's 17-day marathon for the first time in his 27-year career, and the 43-year-old Scot might regret his decision to fly out to China this week for some promotional work instead of using the next few days to put in some valuable practice.

The Perthshire potter is due to fly back to the United Kingdom on Friday, giving him around 24 hours before he starts his first-round match against Bingham on the opening Saturday of competition.

Glasgow's Stephen Maguire has arguably the most mouth-watering first- round match of the Scots.

The former UK Championship winner takes on Belgian Luca Brecel, the youngster player ever to have qualified for the World Championship.

Brecel, aged 17 years and 36 days, is a 100-1 outsider to go all the way and complete a fairy tale title-winning run.

However, Maguire, rated at 14-1 to win the tournament, has been in fine form this season and will hope his experience will count on the biggest stage of all.

Graeme Dott, the 2006 world champion, faces the Englishman Joe Perry in the first round.

Larkhall's "Pocket Dynamo" seems a decent bet at odds of 40-1 to win the title for the second time in his career.

FIRST ROUND DRAW

John Higgins v Liang Wenbo

Stuart Bingham v Stephen Hendry

Graeme Dott v Joe Perry

Stephen Maguire v Luca Brecel

Shaun Murphy v Jamie Jones

Stephen Lee v Andrew Higginson

Ali Carter v Mark Davis

Judd Trump v Dominic Dale

Mark Williams v Liu Chuang

Ronnie O'Sullivan v Peter Ebdon

Martin Gould v David Gilbert

Neil Robertson v Ken Doherty

Ding Junhui v Ryan Day

Mark Allen v Cao Yupeng

Matthew Stevens v Marco Fu

Mark Selby v Barry Hawkins