Alan McManus secured his first win at the Crucible for nine years as he beat fellow Scot John Higgins 10-7 to book a last 16 tie with Ken Doherty, which was coincidentally the last man he beat in the World Championships. McManus led 6-3 after the first session and runs of 47 and 88 pulled him further clear at 8-3. Higgins finally found some form and hit back to win four of the next five with top breaks of 111, 67 and 94 to close the gap to 9-7. However 43-year-old McManus, still wearing his tartan trousers, kept his calm and won frame 17 at a couple of visits.
Ricky Walden is also through to the second round after a titanic battle with Crucible debutant Kyren Wilson, winning 10-7. Walden, semi-finalist here last year, was also 6-3 up after the first session and he edged closer to the finish line as he shared the first four frames with his opponent to be 8-5 up at the interval. Wilson won the next two to turn the heat up to go 8-7 ahead but Walden won the next with a top break of 44 before finally taking a mammoth 17th frame, which lasted 73 minutes, less than two minutes short of the Crucible record.
Last year’s beaten finalist Barry Hawkins recovered from a slow start to end his first session against Dave Gilbert 5-4 ahead. The Hawk had not played a competitive match for over three and a half weeks after winning the Players Championship as he decided to opt out of the China Open. Tamworth’s Gilbert looked dangerous early on and led 3-1 at the break but Hawkins sharpened up in the second half of the match, and breaks of 72, 72, 115 and 69 put him ahead.
Judd Trump leads Tom Ford 6-3 at the end of their first session but it could’ve been much worse for the Leicester cueman, who won the final two sessions from 6-1 down to only trail by three.
Other first round matches on Tuesday see Mark Allen lead Michael Holt 5-4 whilst breaks of 124, 83 and 88 helped Australian Open winner Marco Fu to a 6-3 advantage over Martin Gould.
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