The 2018/19 season gets underway with the Kaspersky Riga Masters qualifiers at the Preston Guild Hall, running from Monday to Thursday this week. Yan Bingtao will be in action on Wednesday when he faces veteran Martin Gould in his opening game.

The Chinese teenager is the youngest player to win the Amateur World Snooker Championship and some of the game’s best-placed pundits are anticipating he will make his mark on the main Tour this season. Bingtao enjoyed a run to the last-four of the International Championship in his home country last season, losing out 9-2 to subsequent Masters champion Mark Allen. He also lost out agonizingly to Mark Williams in the final of the Northern Ireland Open, losing three of the final four frames in a 9-8 defeat to the Welshman. Williams, of course, would end the season with his third World Championship success at the Crucible Theatre when he defeated John Higgins 18-16 in a thriller.

Previewing the season for World Snooker, Bingtao as the most likely maiden tournament winner. David Hendon, journalist and commentator, is predicting he’ll make his mark in 2018/19. “I have a feeling it’ll be one of the Chinese players. Yan Bingtao is 23rd in the rankings after two years on the tour. That’s a hugely impressive achievement,” he said. “He obviously got to within a frame of winning the Northern Ireland Open last season and he has the confidence I think to win something very soon.”

Bingtao is 1.62 to overcome Gould in Preston on Wednesday, with the Englishman 2.20 for the win.