Murphy bows out in opening round

World number three Shaun Murphy was a notable first-round casualty at the totesport.com Welsh Open today as Ronnie O'Sullivan, Stephen Maguire and Stephen Hendry advanced.

While O'Sullivan crushed Stuart Bingham 5-1 and Hendry won by the same scoreline against Dave Harold, Maguire scraped past Dominic Dale 5-4 and Murphy was edged out by home favourite Matthew Stevens in another final-frame decider.

Stevens labelled himself 'possibly the worst front-runner ever' after letting a 2-0 lead slip, and had to come from 51-0 down in the deciding frame, a superb plant sparking a match-winning clearance of 75 to set up a clash with Mark Allen.

Stevens added: 'Sometimes I need a kick up the backside to get the adrenalin going. After that I'm pleased to have got through.

'In the circumstances, it was one of my best clearances. I potted a tough plant and was pleased with the rest of the break.'

Ryan Day added further home cheer when he fought back from 3-1 down to beat Maltese veteran Tony Drago 5-4 in another tense finish.

But Dale was unable to add to the Welsh contingent in the second round in Newport, Maguire winning a scrappy ninth frame after the Austria-based 'Spaceman' had recovered from 3-0 down.

Hendry was a more convincing winner, hammering Harold in the late session.

The veteran Scot stormed into a 3-0 lead and rallied to take the fourth with a break of 75 after Harold had knocked in a 53.

The Stoke player finally got on the board in the fifth frame but a run of 72 helped Hendry seal a 5-1 win despite Harold's response of 49.

O'Sullivan also had things his own way in the first session of play, bouncing back well from his implosion in the Pokerstars.com Masters final against Mark Selby with breaks of 56, 66 and 89 to take the opening three frames.

He seized on an error from former practice partner Bingham to clear the colours and go 4-1 up, and sealed the match with a break of 82 which climaxed with an exhibition pink and a final shot which sent both white and black hurtling off the table.

A host of one-word answers characterised another eccentric press conference, following his often bizarre approach to the media at Wembley, though 'The Rocket' rated his performance at '11' out of 10.

Mark King survived both the threat of Scotsman Marcus Campbell and the possibility of his wife giving birth to prevail by a 5-1 scoreline.

The 35-year-old's third child is due in 10 days' time, and King stated beforehand that should he receive news of wife Sally going into labour early, he would 'be off, no matter what'.

The Essex potter won a 63-minute second frame on the brown and also knocked in a 54 break en route to a low-key but convincing win.

Allen, beaten 6-5 by Selby in the Masters quarter-finals, overcame Leicester's Tom Ford 5-2. The Northern Irishman trailed 2-0 before half-century breaks in five successive frames - 58, 56, 52, 64 and 61 - saw him through.