England’s Mark King will look to prove his credentials when he plays his first match in the Gibraltar Open against fellow countrymen Mark Joyce.

The 44-year-old goes into the match as the favourite despite his recent poor results at the start of 2019.

King started the year in Championship League Group 1 before eventually losing out after defeats to Jack Lisowski, Neil Robertson and Jimmy Robertson.

He was then beaten by Stephen Maguire in the first round of the World Grand Prix before crashing out at the same stage to Sam Craigie in the Welsh Open.

Shaun Murphy beat him in the first round of the Snooker Shoot-Out but he still finds himself 1.44 to win on Friday afternoon.

Joyce remains the 2.75 outsider after some patchy form of late. The 35-year-old reached the third round of the Scottish Open in December but he has yet to repeat that achievement since.

Fan Zhengyi is also an outsider for his clash against Harvey Chandler on Friday morning. The Chinese youngster has struggled to get going this season and he has struggled to qualify for major tournaments.

As a result, he is priced at 2.15 to win this week, while Chandler slightly edges the betting at odds of 1.67.

Germany’s Simon Lichtenberg is also in action in the morning session and he is expected to find life tough as he prepares to take on England’s Chris Wakelin. Lichtenberg is 8.00 to advance into the second round, while Wakelin is as short as 1.07.