A mixed day for the seeds at The Crucible on day two.
In the morning Marco Fu successfully converted an overnight lead into a 10-6 victory over Jimmy Robertson.
In the afternoon unseeded 2006 World Champion Graeme Dott battled past number seven seed Ricky Walden to win a tense encounter 10-8.
In the evening four time champion John Higgins eased past Robert Milkins 10-5 but the number 16 seed Stephen Maguire was dumped out of the tournament by Anthony McGill despite recovering from 9-5 down to level at 9-9.
McGill who had been largely shut out for the four frames prior to the decider showed impeccable nerve to make a quite brilliant break of 122 and with it seal a place in round two.
His reward is a shot at the defending champion Mark Selby.
Elsewhere Neil Robertson carved out a 7-2 overnight lead over Jamie Jones while former finalist Barry Hawkins also has a 7-2 advantage over Matthew Selt.
Day three at the Crucible.
In the morning Matthew Selt produced a heroic fightback from 7-2 down to level at 9-9 with Barry Hawkins before the fifth seed eventually fell over the line to win 10-9 and shatter Selt's dreams.
In the afternoon Neil Robertson wasted little time in demolishing Jamie Jones 10-2 while this evening Stuart Bingham reversed a morning 5-4 deficit against Robbie Williams to win 10-7.
Elsewhere Ding Junhui recovered from 4-0 down against Mark Davis to trail 4-3 in a slow affair where there was insufficient time to complete the session.
They resume at 10am tomorrow.
Ali Carter leads Alan McManus overnight by a score of 6-3 and they return tomorrow afternoon to complete their match.
Tomorrow also sees the 'Rocket' Ronnie O'Sullivan get his campaign underway against Craig Steadman.
The fourth day at The Crucible and what a strange day it was.
In the morning Ding Junhui completed a comeback win from a 4-0 deficit of yesterday to win 10-7.
However in the course of doing so he had a lapse in concentration when a possible maximum break was in the offing when already on a break of 96.
He inexplicably played for the blue and only after landing on it did he realize his error before holding his head in his hands and laughing about it
.
He tried a long range thin cut on the black and missed.
In the afternoon Ali Carter eased past veteran Alan 'Angles' McManus 10-5.
At the same time 5 time World Champion Ronnie O'Sullivan was making his entrance. In the first frame he potted 13 reds and blacks before missing and then after suffering discomfort with his shoes a few frames later O'Sullivan proceeded to play bare foot.
After presumably being advised playing with no shoes was against the dress code he borrowed a pair from tournament director Mike Ganley and built up a 7-2 lead over Craig Steadman.
In the evening Mark Allen converted a 6-3 morning lead into a comprehensive 10-3 trouncing of Ryan Day.
Meanwhile in a repeat of the all Welsh 2000 World Final between Mark Williams and Matthew Stevens the first frame was one to warm the heart of many a club player and many a novice as both players made a catalogue of errors.
After that the standard improved and Stevens ultimately built a big lead of 7-2 going into tomorrow.
(21-04-2015 23:15 )snookered147 Wrote: [ -> ]Meanwhile in a repeat of the all Welsh 2000 World Final between Mark Williams and Matthew Stevens the first frame was one to warm the heart of many a club player and many a novice as both players made a catalogue of errors.
Saw Frame 7, which was also full of incident
Ronnie appears to have an unlimited fund of news-attracting wheezes to work through (slagging off a proposed bid for the Olympics, then his shoe-less antics - whatever next?)
Yeah frame 7 was unbelievable.
The pockets were like a magnet to the cue ball
.
And the one cushion pot on the blue only to go in off - Wow
.
Seems like Ronnie can't keep out of the news somehow I expect he'll get a small slap on the wrist for playing barefoot! Seriously I can't see why BS can't do some pool on the snooker table with a small tourney while the snooker is on!! would be nice to see the babes pot some balls for a change!!
If anyone knows where Ronnie O'Sullivan can get a comfortable pair of size 8 shoes to play snooker in tweet him @ronnieo147
The penultimate day of first round action on day 5 saw the comfortable progression of Ronnie O'Sullivan with a 10-3 victory in the morning session of play.
Matthew Stevens completed a one sided win against Mark Williams in the afternoon by a score of 10-2.
In the evening Joe Perry saw off Zhang Anda of China 10-4 largely on the back of an 8-1 morning session lead.
Elsewhere Shaun Murphy laid down a marker for his aspirations of a second title in establishing a 7-2 advantage over Finland pro Robin Hull. In the evening Judd Trump was in good form in establishing a 7-2 overnight lead against promising Grimsby pro Stuart Carrington finishing the session with a break of 85.
Tomorrow sees the completion of the first round and the start of round two. There is no morning session on this the first Thursday of the championship.
Given the way it was looking with Zhang Anda, it's all credit that he did much better in the evening, even if the mountain was too high to climb.
Second round matches - best of 25 frames:
Mark Selby v Anthony McGill
Joe Perry v Shaun Murphy
Barry Hawkins v Mark Allen
Ali Carter v Neil Robertson
Ding Junhui v John Higgins
Marco Fu v Judd Trump
Graeme Dott v Stuart Bingham
Matthew Stevens v Ronnie O'Sullivan