England’s Shaun Murphy will be hoping to maintain his recent form when he starts his Champion of Champions campaign on Monday against Jimmy Robertson.

The world No.10 endured a slow start to the season after only reaching the second round of the Riga Masters in July. He also failed to qualify for the European Masters before being dumped out of the Paul Hunter Classic at the first hurdle.

However, the 36-year-old seems to have found his rhythm in recent weeks. He reached the third round of the China Championship before narrowly losing to China’s Lu Haotian.

He also reached the same stage at the English Open and that should give him confidence ahead of Monday’s battle.

Murphy is 1.50 to win, while Robertson is the 2.50 outsider. Punters may expect a close game and Murphy is 5.25 to win 4-3.

If he wins, Murphy will then take on the winner of the clash between Ding Junhui and Michael Georgiou. The latter is a big outsider for the meeting after a poor start to the campaign.

The Cypriot has struggled for momentum all year, reaching the second round of a tournament just once. That was at the Paul Hunt Classic in August but the 30-year-old has yet to find his groove since.

He was knocked out of the International Championship last week in the first round and he also suffered the same fate at the European Masters and English Open.

Georgiou is a 5.00 outsider for the contest, while Ding is 3.80 to win 4-0.