Snooker World Championships:Joe Perry became the first major casualty of the 2009 Betfred.com World Championships as he was sent crashing out in the first round by Jamie Cope this afternoon.
Cope, a prolific winner at junior level, was defeated in the first round on his Crucible debut last year but looks set for a decent run this time out after outclassing his more experienced opponent, who reached the 2008 semi-finals.
Having started the afternoon session 5-4 down, the 23-year-old produced a mature display against the world number 12, racing into a 7-5 lead before keeping his nerve to complete a 10-6 victory.
Ranked 19th in the world, he will take on the winner of John Higgins' meeting with Michael Holt in the next round in what will be the longest match of his career so far.
Cope began the session in inspired form, taking the first three frames with quick-fire breaks to stun Perry, who had been in a winning position in all of them.
The Cambridgeshire potter would have been disappointed to let the opening frame slip, having built a break of 37 only to screw the cueball back into the middle pocket and allow Cope to make a clearance of 81.
But the frustration mounted when he threw away a 56-0 lead in the next frame to fall behind in the match for the first time.
Cope seemed to be developing a taste for stealing victory and repeated the trick in the most impressive fashion yet in the 12th.
Again, Perry established a decent lead with a break of 30 but again Cope intervened and made a sumptuous clearance of 78 to go 7-5 up.
Perry is made of stern stuff, as he showed at last year's tournament, and he came back with a 60 break that this time proved enough to pull the score back to 7-6 at the mid-session interval.
But Cope would not be denied and it was he who started the break-building after the resumption with a run of 73 putting him 8-6 ahead.
The Stoke cueman then negotiated his way through a nervy 15th to move within one frame of victory, and at 63-4 up in the 16th, he looked to have it in the bag but, needing only a red for the match, he faltered with a shot to the middle pocket.
Demonstrating an impressively cool head, the youngster soon regained his composure and saw out the frame to clinch his place in the second round.
"After five frames I felt a little bit unsettled but I just tried to forget about it and enjoy it," he said afterwards. "I was just a little bit nervous but I was expecting that and it was nice to overcome it. I feel as if I'm in the tournament now."
Having got to within touching distance of victory, Cope was desperate to seal the final frame as quickly as possible.
"To be honest, I wanted to do it in one visit and I rolled that red too far, which I was disappointed with. But I'm just relieved to win," he added.
Earlier the all-Chinese encounter in the first round of the Betfred.com World Snooker Championship did not disappoint its record-breaking audience after Ding Junhui came through a thrilling contest to beat Liang Wenbo.
Ding, the world number 11, will meet seven-times world champion Stephen Hendry in round two after defeating his compatriot Liang 10-8 in front an enthralled crowd at the Crucible in Sheffield and hundreds of millions more watching on television on the other side of the world.