Ken Doherty opened his Embassy World Championship campaign in fine style at the Crucible this morning, cruising to a 6-3 lead over England’s Nick Dyson.
Doherty, who brought the title back to Ireland in 1997, comes into the tournament on the back of a wonderful season and his good form showed no sign of abating as he asserted his dominance over the world number 114.
At one stage Doherty led 5-1 with a century break helping him settle into the championship. But Dyson rallied impressively, winning three of the four frames after the interval to peg back Doherty's lead to three. The best of 19-frame match will reach it's conclusion later tonight.
Over on the Crucible’s other table Peter Ebdon survived a late comback by James Wattana to reach the second round.
The world number 12 looked to be cruising at 8-3 up but the Wattana recovered brilliantly and clawed his way back to 9-8 before Ebdon claimed the frame he needed with an impressive break of 67.
It was the nearest thing to an upset so far during a tournament in which the six seeds to have completed their opening matches have all won, unlike last year when several top-ranked players were beaten early on.