World Championship Day 1

John Higgins survived an onslought from Liang Wembo to win
after a deciding frame.

The snooker season’s climax got underway on Saturday at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield with John Higgins being the first man to book his place in the second round with a nail biting win over Liang Wembo. Liang, who has had a relatively poor season, looked likely to cause an upset as he went 8-6 up but the Scot made it 8-8, then 9-8 but the Chinese forced a decider with a break of 75. Liang missed a risky double which allowed the relieved defending champion to clear up to progress through to the last 16.

Earlier in the day Stephen Hendry recorded an unbelievable 147 maximum break as he stormed to a commanding lead over Stuart Bingham. The seven times world champion was leading 5-1 before putting away some excellent pots to secure the £40,000 rolling maximum bonus and went onto end the session 8-1 up. Neil Robertson also holds a healthy 7-2 lead over Ireland’s Ken Doherty. Doherty competed well early on but the Aussie upped his game to put one foot in the next round.

Mark Allen trails another one of the five Chinese players at the crucible, by a score line of 5-4 in the evening’s other match. Finally, there was another surprise in the second morning match as world number 68 David Gilbert, put in a good performance to give himself an encouraging 6-3 lead over Martin Gould.