Mark Allen v Mark Williams live stream | Players Championship 2024 preview

Mark Williams makes his Players Championship return when he locks horns with Mark Allen in the opening round on Tuesday.

The second day of action at the Telford International Centre commences with a tasty battle of the left-handed Marks.

After missing out 12 months ago, Williams is back in the elite 16-man event having won the British Open and been runner-up to Shaun Murphy at the Championship League this season.

Although, despite reaching the World Grand Prix quarter-finals, he is looking to truly kick-start 2024 following early exits from the Masters, German Masters and Welsh Open.

The Welshman, who was runner-up to Joe Perry at the 2015 Players Tour Championship Finals, will hope to be inspired by a venue where he holds fond memories. Indeed, he won the 2000 Grand Prix in Telford and narrowly missed out on the UK Championship crown to John Higgins 10 years later.

The three-time World champion also has experience of beating Allen in this venue, doing so courtesy of a 9-5 win in the last 16 of the 2007 UK Championship.

However, history suggests the Pistol may have extra incentive heading into this clash. After all, he has reached at least the final of the respective tournament following five of his last six victories over Williams.

The final winner of the event under its former title of the Players Tour Championship Finals in 2016, Allen has suffered back-to-back first-round exits and is now seeking his first match win since 2020.

Also beaten by Higgins in the UK Championship semi-finals on his last visit to Telford in 2010, the world number three is looking to land his third silverware of the season, in which he has already landed the Champion of Champions and Shoot Out crowns.

The winner of this match will play either Gary Wilson or Hossein Vafaei in the Players Championship quarter-finals.

Play gets under way at 1pm GMT on Tuesday and will be contested over the best of 11 frames at the Telford International Centre.