Rising snooker star Jack Lisowski is hoping to put on a show when he plays in his own back yard next month.

The former Chosen Hill School pupil is among the world’s top 32 players who will head to The Centaur at Cheltenham Racecourse for the Coral World Grand Prix which runs from 4th-10th February.

All the top names from the sport will be there including multiple world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan and recently crowned Masters champion Judd Trump.

Lisowksi, who has climbed to 16 in the world, will be hoping to be one of the main men at an event which has a total prize fund of £375,000.

And he’s hoping that Gloucestershire fans turn out in force for the first ever snooker event held at the home of National Hunt racing.

“There’s going to be a lot of local support,” the 27-year-old said. “More people than ever have been asking me about tickets.

“It’s my home town so I hope they can spur me on to do my best and I can have a good run.”

That would delight snooker fans all over the county of course and Lisowski has certainly been impressed by the facilities at The Centaur.

“It’s a classy venue,” he said. “I’m really excited to be playing there and I hope I can do well.”

And the signs are good because Lisowski has been doing very well this season.

His current world ranking is his highest since he turned professional back in 2010.

“It’s been my most consistent season,” he said, “everything is going to plan. I’m still learning but everything is going well.”

At the start of the campaign he came close to winning a ranking event for the first time in his career, reaching the final of the Riga Masters before losing to Neil Robertson.

He has also made the semi-finals and quarter-finals of other tournaments with those performances coming on the back of his first ever win at the world championships in Sheffield last April.

He had a disappointing result in his most recent tournament – losing 6-1 to Ding Junhui in the opening round of the Masters – but that defeat has served only to make Lisowski even more determined.

“That was a learning curve,” he said. “I’m working on my concentration, my safety. Hopefully when that clicks my scoring can get me over the line.”

And Lisowski doesn’t have to look too far for inspiration following his good friend Trump’s success in the Masters.

“Judd’s safety was so strong last week,” continued Lisowski. “When you combine that with scoring it makes you so tough to beat.

“My scoring is normally there, it’s normally my safety that lets me down. Against Ding the scoring wasn’t there. To make me a more consistent player I need to get the safety sorted and I’m still working on my concentration at big events.

“It’s coming but it’s not there yet. I’m 27 and hopefully it will all click pretty soon.”

That doesn’t just happen of course and Lisowski knows that he must put in plenty of hard work if he is to challenge at the very top of the game.

And as regards his safety play he knows exactly what he needs to do.

“I think it’s all about repetition,” he said. ”It’s about hitting safety shots in practice. I’ve never really practised it, now I’m putting it in my routines and I think it’s getting better.”

Lisowski has been able to come to terms with that defeat against Ding Junhui at Alexandra Palace.

His first trip to The Crucible in 2013 ended in a 13-3 defeat – “Barry Hawkins completely bashed me up,” he said – but he was much more prepared at the end of last season when he returned to Sheffield and defeated Stuart Bingham in the first round of the world championship.

“I felt like a fish out of water [against Hawkins] and that was how I felt the other day [against Junhui] but the second time I played at The Crucible I was much more confident and found everything a lot easier, so I put the other day down as being my first at the Masters.

“The crowd were crazy, they’re so passionate about their snooker there. It’s the most people I’ve ever played in front of so fingers crossed I’ll be back there next year and I’ll be a lot calmer next time.”

It shouldn’t be forgotten that Lisowski qualified for the Masters because of his excellent form this season.

“I’ve always wanted to be in the top 16 and when you’re in the top 16 you’re doing something right,” he said. “To just have got in it for the Masters was such a buzz for me, now I need to work harder than ever to make sure I can stay there but hopefully I can continue to rise in the rankings and become a top, top player, that’s my goal.

“But it’s one step at a time. I’ve just reached the top 16, hopefully I can stay there and keep my ranking going in the right direction.

“The rewards are there and it just makes you want to work even harder, it’s a great time to be a pro snooker player.”

And like all top sportsmen and sportswomen, Lisowski wants to be the very best in his chosen sport.

“My ultimate goal is to win the world championship,” he said. “It’s the hardest thing to do as a professional, it’s the one everyone wants to win, it’s the one I’ve wanted to win since watching it on TV when I was six or seven.

“That’s the ultimate goal. Beating Stuart Bingham there last season gave me the confidence that one day I can do it there in Sheffield. That’s the dream.”

He’s certainly moving in the right direction and, as anyone who plays sport at any level knows, it’s far more fun when you are winning.

And Lisowski is no exception.

“It’s so much more enjoyable than two years ago,” he said. “I was trying to qualify for tournaments but I wasn’t even qualifying for them. I wasn’t going to China, I wasn’t going to all these cool places.

“You just don’t feel involved in the tournaments but now I haven’t lost a qualifier for maybe a year and a half. I’ve been in pretty much every single tournament, I’m just enjoying it so much more, winning more games.”

And he’ll have even more fun if he can win a few matches in Cheltenham next month.