Kyren Wilson faces a tricky opening assignment at the Riga Masters after being drawn against China’s Xiao Guodong in the first round.

Xiao made light work of Englishman Chae Ross in qualifying as he claimed a 4-1 victory and then backed that up by seeing off world number 67 Eden Sharav of Scotland 6-4 in qualifying for the International Championship.

The world number 25 enjoyed a fairly solid season last time out with a quarter-final appearance in the World Open and a semi-final in the World Grand Prix particular highlights for the 30-year-old.

Xiao reached the last eight in Riga back in 2016 but has fallen at the first hurdle in the last two seasons.

Wilson reached the quarter-finals in Latvia last year and will be looking to build on a decent year last time out by making a statement in the opening ranking event of the campaign.

The world number eight ended the season with a fourth successive appearance in the quarter-finals of the World Championship although he will have been disappointed not to go further after being dumped out by surprise package David Gilbert.

Wilson is the 1.44 favourite to win and he has an excellent record against Xiao with a perfect 6-0 record in their head-to-head – including a 4-0 whitewash in their last meeting at the English Open two years ago.

Xiao is 2.60 to win the match and 34.00 to win the tournament outright, with Wilson an 8.00 chance to take the title in Riga.