John Higgins converted a 6-3 overnight lead against former finalist Matthew Stevens into a 10-5 first round victory at the Betfred World Championship in Sheffield.
Stevens had started the second session in style with a break of 138 to reduce the advantage to two frames, but the four-time former champion extended his lead to 8-5.
Stevens hauled it back to 8-5 and missed a golden opportunity in the following frame, when a missed black let in Higgins to get the snooker he required and move on to claim a relatively convincing win.
Ronnie O'Sullivan required just one hour and 22 minutes to establish an 8-1 overnight lead against Thailand's Thepchaiya Un-Nooh as their eagerly-anticipated first-round clash turned into a one-man rampage.
The match between the two fastest players on the circuit saw O'Sullivan begin his World Championship campaign by blasting seven breaks over 50, including two centuries, and record an average shot-time for the session of just 13.41 seconds.
Point and shoot is all it is, right @ronnieo147?
— World Snooker Tour (@WeAreWST) August 2, 2020
What a player 👏 #ilovesnooker @Betfred pic.twitter.com/HKRhDgapcj
Chinese 16th seed Yan Bingtao moved close to sealing a second-round clash with Judd Trump has he built a 7-1 overnight lead against qualifier Elliot Slessor.
In the evening, Neil Robertson won five frames in succession to beat Liang Wenbo 10-5 and book his place in the last 16.
Liang won the first frame of the evening to level at 5-5 but declared a foul on himself after potting a long red in the next and Robertson did not look back.
The Australian summoned back-to-back breaks of 97 and 89 to take command, then went on to sweep up the next three frames as the Chinese player's resistance crumbled.
Kurt Maflin was warned after making an obscene gesture in the 16th frame of his first round match against David Gilbert.
Maflin directed the gesture towards the table after his bid for a maximum break ended when he ran out of position on the penultimate red.
Referee Tatiana Woollaston took Maflin aside before the start of the next frame and told him: "I have to warn you - the next one, you lose the frame."
World Snooker confirmed that Maflin would not face any further punishment beyond the referee's warning.
Maflin maintained his poise however with a break of 63 in the following frame to move one away from victory at 9-8.
Gilbert looked set to take the frame into a decider but missed a simple red to the middle on a break of 40, and Maflin ultimately seized his chance to clear the colours and wrap up a 10-8 win.
