JORDAN Brown will face a familiar opponent in the shape of David Gilbert over the best of nine frames on Monday evening bidding to reach the last 32 of the inaugural Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters in Riyadh.
Antrim’s world number 46 came from 3-0 down to beat Bulscu Revesz of Hungary 4-3 on Sunday evening to set up a seventh career meeting since 2020 with this year’s World Championship semi-finalist.
Brown won the first five of those encounters but Gilbert stopped the rot at last month’s Xi’an Grand Prix, where he won 5-2.
Brown’s club-mate Robbie McGuigan had his winning run ended in round three by Chris Wakelin on Sunday. The Antrim rookie shared the first four frames with the world number 26, but the Englishman, runner-up in last year’s BetVictor Northern Ireland Open, fired in breaks of 100 and 54 to win 4-2.
Nonetheless, the 20-year-old banks some valuable ranking points and £7,000 in prize money as he bids to build on his two-year tour card.
Mark Allen joins the action on Tuesday, when he faces the winner of the all-Chinese clash between Xiao Guodong and Lyu Haotian.
