KENT snooker player Gerard Greene enters the first tournament of the new season with his eye on the world’s top 16.

Greene, from Rainham, goes into the first round of the LG Cup in Preston on Saturday full of confidence. In the opening round of the final stages, he takes on Dominic Dale, the man he beat in last year’s tournament on the way to the quarter-finals.

Greene starts the season ranked 38, with a provisional ranking of 21, and has a realistic chance of making it into the group of the world’s elite players.

To show what kind of form he’s in, he breezed into the final stages of the British Open with a 5-1 demolition of Andrew Higginson last week.

In a bizarre twist, Greene will play Ken Doherty in the second round of both the LG Cup and British Open should he make it through.

He said: “I’ve been practising hard over the summer and I played well in the British Open qualifiers so I’m going into the LG Cup in good nick.”

He plays Ali Carter in the first round of the British Open which starts in Brighton on November 8.