Snooker:Crucible rookie Mark Allen showed no signs of nerves on his first outing at the 888.com World Championship this afternoon as he opened up a 6-3 lead over 1997 winner Ken Doherty.
The promising Antrim-based player gave Doherty a torrid time in the first session of their best-of-19-frame first-round clash in Sheffield.
Breaks of 92, 95, 57 and 74 helped Allen to a welcome three-frame cushion before the pair resume to conclude their match tomorrow.
Doherty, aiming to win this year's title 10 years after his sole previous triumph, battled back by winning three frames.
But the provisional world number two was far from his best and mustered a high break of 40 in the whole match.
To add insult in injury, and with the scoreline finely poised at 5-3, Allen pinched the last frame of the session with a cool 74 break to leave himself needing four frames for a place in the next round.
The eventual winner will play Welshman Matthew Stevens but for Doherty there is still plenty of hard work to do.
The Dubliner is understandably keen to impress this year and also has the added incentive of trying to become world number one for the first time in his career.
Nine different players are in the running for that honour but Doherty and Scotland's John Higgins now lead the race to usurp current incumbent Stephen Hendry.
"I'm just concentrating on winning my match, but it's great for snooker that the race for number one has gone down to the last tournament of the season," said Doherty.
"It would be great to finish top of the rankings but that would be a bonus for me. Winning the world title again would be the biggest achievement for me."