CHINESE outsider Liang Wenbo marked his snooker World Championship debut with a shock 10-5 win over 1997 champion Ken Doherty in the first round in Sheffield, England, on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, fellow Chinese debutant Liu Chuang was more than holding his own after rallying from 3-1 down to be just 5-4 behind against two-time world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan.
Doherty wasn’t the only former world champion to fall at the first hurdle Wednesday with Graeme Dott, the 2006 winner, beaten 10-7 by Joe Perry.
That meant three men who have won snooker’s most prestigious prize had exited the tournament in the space of two days after six-time champion Steve Davis was beaten by Stuart Bingham on Tuesday.
But Shaun Murphy, Crucible champion the year before Dott, eased through to the last 16 with a 10-3 win over fellow Englishman Dave Harold.
Liang, 21, who had to win four qualifying matches just to get to this stage, showed few nerves as he raced into a 7-2 lead at the end of the first session.
Although Doherty showed some of his customary resilience to prevent a total rout, the Irishman couldn’t stop Liang joining Ding Junhui, China’s leading player, in the second round. Ding edged out Hong Kong’s Marco Fu 10-9 Tuesday.
“It’s the best win of my career,” said an elated Liang. “I was not thinking about winning or losing, just trying my best, and beating Ken is a great boost to my confidence because this is the biggest event in snooker.
“I was very nervous and I have not thought about how far I can go. I just want to give my best,” added Liang, who now faces Northern Ireland’s Joe Swail.
The defeat meant Doherty was dropped out of the top 16 in the world rankings for the first time in 15 years and will have to qualify for the televised stage of tournaments next season.
“It’s hard to describe, it’s very disappointing,” said a downcast Doherty.
“I didn’t play like I can and to drop out of the top 16 is the icing on the cake. It would be quite scary if this was my last Crucible but I’ve got my hands on the trophy once. Who knows whether I will be back or not?
“Liang played a lot like Mark Allen against me last year (Allen won in the first round). He did not look like he had any nerves and had been here more times than I had.”
O’Sullivan saw his campaign for a third world title start well as he went 3-0 in front before Liu pulled a frame back with a break of 92.
And the teenager, who lost 5-1 to O’Sullivan in last season’s China Open, leveled at 3-3 after getting the man nicknamed “Rocket” for his aggressive style into two awkward snookers.
Liu, who is based at Sheffield’s World Snooker Academy, lost a tight seventh frame but the 17-year-old leveled again with a 55 break.
He led 40-13 in the final frame of the day before missing a black, which gave O’Sullivan the chance to grab a slender lead.
Earlier, Dott lost his 16th consecutive match.
Diagnosed with depression, the Scot came close to withdrawing from this tournament before it started.
“The press release had been written and I told my manager to release it but he wanted to wait a week,” Dott said. “I am surprised at how I played, I felt great, really back to normal.
“Joe just beat me. I thought he played unbelievably well. He made four centuries and could easily have had six.”
(SD-Agencies)
