Mark Allen is currently 11th in the provisional world rankings

Mark Allen will face England's Martin Gould in the opening round of this year's World Championship in Sheffield.

Gould defeated twice world finalist Matthew Stevens in the 10-4 in the final qualifying round on Tuesday but Allen will be fancied to progress.

Joe Swail has been handed a difficult opener against Marco Fu, who has risen to five in the provisional rankings.

The other Northern Ireland hopeful Gerard Greene will take on last year's beaten finalist Ali Carter.

Englishman Carter defeated Swail in the recent Welsh Open final and he will go into the Crucible event as one of the title favourites.

Draw for the 2009 World Championship (starts 18 April):
(nationality and world ranking in brackets)

Peter Ebdon (Eng, 9) v Nigel Bond (Eng, 23)
Ali Carter (Eng, 7) v Gerard Greene (NI, 33)
Mark King (Eng, 15) v Rory McLeod (Eng, 44)
Graeme Dott (Sco, 13) v Barry Hawkins (Eng, 27)
Shaun Murphy (Eng, 3) v Andrew Higginson (Eng, 38)
Ding Junhui (Chn, 11) v Liang Wenbo (Chn, 40)
Stephen Hendry (Sco, 6) v Mark Williams (Wal, 22)
Ryan Day (Wal, 8) v Stephen Lee (Eng, 26)
Joe Perry (Eng, 12) v Jamie Cope (Eng, 19)
Mark Selby (Eng, 4) v Ricky Walden (Eng, 35)
Mark Allen (NI, 16) v Martin Gould (Eng, 63)
John Higgins (Sco, 5) v Michael Holt (Eng, 34)
Neil Robertson (Aus, 10) v Steve Davis (Eng, 29)
Ronnie O'Sullivan (Eng, 1) v Stuart Bingham (Eng, 21)
Marco Fu (HK, 14) v Joe Swail (NI, 20)
Stephen Maguire (Sco, 2) v Jamie Burnett (Sco, 45)

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