Mark Allen says he aims to avoid the stress of the World Championship as his Crucible campaign starts with Robbie Williams test

The 38-year-old starts his bid to land the biggest prize in the sport on Tuesday against qualifier Robbie Williams.

Allen’s record in Sheffield has only yielded two semi-final appearances in 17 years, but a change in lifestyle a couple of seasons ago has seen ranking titles begin to roll in – five in the last two years, plus a Champion of Champions gong.

A win at the Crucible would also complete a ‘Triple Crown’ in the sport after Allen’s previous success at the Masters and UK Championship.

Allen helped to conduct this year’s draw on BBC Radio 5 Live and when asked if he watches future opponents on the television, Allen gave a simple response.

He explained: "This is such a bad answer but I don't, I genuinely don't.

"I concentrate on my own game, do my own thing in between games and try not to get involved in the stress of it.

"If you start watching all the other stuff...you start to get dragged into the battles.

"I don't even watch it from that point of view because you know all the guys so well as we travel the world together, so watching a player on one given today isn't going to change your mind on how you approach the game the next day.

"Unless there's a friend in the tournament or it's a World final, I'll watch because it's the pinnacle of the sport.

"In general, I try not to watch too much because it annoys me too much when I've been beaten and there's bad memories.”

Seven-time world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan begins his quest for an unprecedented eighth title of the modern era against 22-year-old Welshman Jackson Page this weekend.

Luca Brecel beat Mark Selby in last year’s final and the Belgian gets his defence under way against David Gilbert.

Last year’s runner-up Selby will take on Joe O’Connor in all-Leicester encounter, while third seed Judd Trump will play Hossein Vafaei in an exciting first-round clash.

Allen said of the draw: "There’s a couple of massive games there,” he said. “Luca (Brecel) vs (Dave) Gilbert to kick things off on Saturday.

"Ronnie (O’Sullivan) against Jackson (Page), who loves the big occasion. (Judd) Trump against (Hossein) Vafaei, Ding (Junhui) against (Jack) Lisowski, a ridiculous match for the first round as well.

"What a match-up with Joe O’Connor, two Leicester boys, two good friends so that could be an interesting one as well.

"Robbie is someone I’m a big admirer of actually and the way he came through that qualifier the other day from 9-8 down, he’s a class player but they’re all good players at the end of the day.”

Elsewhere, sixth seed Mark Williams faces Si Jiahui, former Crucible runner-up Kyren Wilson meets Dominic Dale, Barry Hawkins faces Ryan Day, Robert Milkins takes on Pang Junxu and four-time World Champion John Higgins starts against Jamie Jones.

Chinese sensation Zhang Anda will take on Jak Jones, whilst this season’s Masters runner-up Ali Carter has been drawn against Stephen Maguire, with Tom Ford and Ricky Walden also paired up.

Shaun Murphy v Lyu Haotian and Gary Wilson v Stuart Bingham completes the first-round line-up.