Australia is set to hold its first ever World Snooker ranking event, with the Australian Goldfields Open kicking-off on Monday and Neil Robertson is sure to be the main draw in his home country.

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Robertson’s 2010 World Championship success has raised the sport’s profile Down Under and played a major role in the decision to introduce the tournament to the calendar.

World Snooker chief Barry Hearn sees the Australian Open as a step forward in the push towards the globalisation of the sport, and the 29-year-old from Melbourne has already attracted a host of new faces to snooker.

The tournament will begin as a best-of-nine frames contest, in the semi-finals players will battle over 11 frames and the final will be decided after 17.

Robertson’s 2010 victory over Graeme Dott has been the highlight of the Australian’s career so far but a victory on home soil would be a major coup for the ‘Thunder from Down Under’, especially with plenty of high-profile players taking part.

However, Dott will not be involved after pulling out through injury, while the biggest name in the sport, Ronnie O’Sullivan, has also been forced to withdraw with his own injury complaints.

The current favourite is reigning world champion John Higgins at 9/2, while the ‘Welsh Potting Machine’ Mark Williams is 5/1 and both certainly have the ability to take the top prize.

Punters looking for better value may fancy a 7/1 flutter on Robertson, who will have the support of the home crowd.

There are two other Australians involved, as brothers Steve and James Mifsud have been handed wild cards, although the duo are massive outsiders and can be backed at 250/1 and 200/1 respectively.

China’s Ding Junhui is 7/1 and should not be troubled in his opener against Stuart Bingham, but World Championship finalist Judd Trump looks a decent price at 14/1.  The 21-year-old wowed the Crucible crowd with his shot-selection and fast paced play earlier this year, beating then champion Robertson in the first round, as well as picking up victories over Junhui and Dott en-route to the final.

The Bristolian should ease his way past Mark Davies in his first round fixture on Monday, Trump is 2/7 to beat Davies, while Davies is 5/2 to cause an upset and beat Snooker’s rising star