John Higgins to play Alan McManus in Scottish Open opener

The draw for the Coral Scottish Open has thrown up a mouth-watering meeting between two of the country's most successful players, John Higgins and Alan McManus.

John Higgins reached the quarter-finals of last week's UK Championships. Picture: Mike Egerton/PA Wire

The two local favourites will clash in the first round at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow on Monday 12 December at 1pm.

The Glaswegian duo’s most recent encounter came at this year’s World Championship, where they met at the quarter-finals. It was 1994 Masters champion McManus who came out on top that day in a stunning 13-11 victory.

So far the 2016/17 season has seen the four-time World Champion Higgins return to the peak of his form. He scored back-to-back titles at the China Championship and the Champion of Champions and made his eighth career 147 at the Coral Northern Ireland Open in Belfast.

He lost narrowly to world No 1 Mark Selby in the quarter-finals of last week’s UK Championships in York.

Higgins leads McManus 12-10 in the head-to-head record.

Meanwhile, world number four Judd Trump will headline next Monday’s evening session as he faces China’s Zhang Yong.

Ronnie O’Sullivan opens his campaign on the Tuesday afternoon with a tough test against world No 29 Matthew Selt.

Scottish eyes will also be trained on Stephen Maguire’s first round tie with talented Chinese cueman Zhou Yuelong on Tuesday evening.