Defending world champion John Higgins had an almighty scare in his first round clash against Barry Hawkins at the Crucible, fighting back from 5-3 down to win 10-6. A brilliant second session from the 'Wizard of Wishaw' saw him win at a canter in the end and he is now a best price of 9-2 with bet365 to retain his crown.
Mark Allen is now 1-1000 with bet365 and William Hill to wrap up victory over Tom Ford, taking an impressive 8-1 overnight lead into their second session on Sunday. Allen nearly produced a 147 in frame nine in what was a brilliant session for the Ulsterman, breaking down on the green with just the colours to go. He shouldn't have too much difficulty making it into round two in the morning.
Mark Selby continues his match with Ken Doherty at 2.30 and as predicted, the Jester did not have things all his own way in the first half of their encounter and at 6-3 up, he still has work to do to progress. Selby is 1-14 to win the match, while Doherty can be backed at 12-1 with William Hill.
The morning's other first round clash sees MARCO FU take on Martin Gould, with the Hong Kong star the 4-9 jolly to beat the world number 46, who is a best price of 2-1. Although it is firm odds-on, I think the bookies have been a tad generous about Fu as I can see him winning this match pretty easily and I would be having an interest in scorelines of 10-3 and 10-4, priced at 18-1 and 12-1 respectively with William Hill.
One of the ties of the round starts at 2.30pm, when ALI CARTER begins his campaign versus Jamie Cope. This really could go either way, with both players capable of producing some impressive snooker when in the mood. But preference on this occasion has to be for Carter who has enjoyed a decent run of tournaments – quarter-finalist in the UK, runner-up in the Welsh Open and semi-finalist at the China Open.
Such has been Carter's decent form that he is now up to third in the provisional rankings and at 8-11 with Blue Square and sportingbet, I think he ranks as a pretty decent bet against a player who has struggled to live up to his hype this season.
Joe Perry takes a 7-2 lead against Michael Holt into the evening session and victory looks a mere formality for the 'Gentleman' who is now 1-25 with bet365, but as short as 1-100 with sportingbet. Perry has endured a miserable season, but he looked back to his old self on Saturday, although he was helped by Holt who squandered too many chances, something which is a recurring theme for the Nottingham potter.
Those who still think Holt can drag himself back into the match can back him at 16-1 with sportingbet and Stan James, but he'll have to play a lot better than he did in the first session.
That just leaves Stephen Hendry against Anda Zhang and what a match this is turning out to be. The legendary Scot raced into a 4-0 lead and the situation looked bleak for the unknown Chinese star. But Zhang managed to pull it back to 5-4 by the end of the session to leave himself in with a great chance of a shock result.
Hendry is still a general 2-7 to progress, while Zhang is an enticing 10-3 and if the young Chinaman can maintain his composure in the Crucible cauldron then he could be worth an interest as Hendry is definitely beatable nowadays and is probe to some bad errors at crucial times.
