Saturday 25 April 2015 15:07, UK
Judd Trump overcame a late wobble to conquer Stuart Carrington and make the second round of the World Championship.
Shaun Murphy, the 2005 world champion and current Masters title holder, had no problems in booking his spot in the last 16 after conceding just one additional frame to his overnight lead of 7-2 as he wrapped up a 10-3 win over Robin Hull.
Finland's Hull was able to pick up frame 12 but Murphy's wrapped up the contest with a break of 111 and set up a clash with Joe Perry.
Former world No 1 Ding Junhui impressed in the evening to win back-to-back frames with breaks of 67 and 94 to cut John Higgins's advantage to two frames at 5-3, hitting back after a miserable start to their contest with the Chinese star losing five of the opening six frames.
Trump, world No 6, resumed on 7-2 against Carrington but after a re-rack in the opening frame on Thursday had to watch his opponent, making his Crucible debut, strike in a 97 to reduce the gap to four.
Trump, runner-up in 2011, settled his nerves with a 74 in the next but back came Carrington with smooth knocks of 74 and 70 to trail 8-5 at the interval.
He was in again but stalled on 24, allowing the 25-year-old from Bristol to clear up and get within one of the finish line.
Grimsby potter Carrington showed his mettle, though, with a 99 in the next before a closing 109 from Trump put an end to his campaign with a 10-6 victory.
There's obviously a few things I need to work on but other than that I feel very confident
Trump, who next plays Marco Fu, told the BBC: "I'm just going to focus on my own game. If I play how I know I can, I'll win it.
"But Carrington played well, considering it's his first time here. Second session he hardly missed a ball. He probably won't take as much credit as he would if it was a top player making those breaks. He played as good as anyone I've seen first time here."
Trump is one of the crowd favourites wherever he plays and admits there is a weight of expectation on him this year.
"There's obviously a lot of anticipation this year," he added. "My results have shown that I'm playing some good stuff, I felt like I played well over the past two days.
"There's obviously a few things I need to work on but other than that I feel very confident. It was nice for Stuart to play as he did, it just shows there is always stuff to work on and you won't get many sessions where someone plays that well."
On the other table, defending champion Mark Selby was locked in a tough battle with Anthony McGill in the opening second round match.
Selby, who needed to scrap for a 10-9 win over Kurt Maflin in the first round, started slowly to lose the opening two frames but breaks of 51, 65 and 87 had the 'Jester from Leicester' sneaking ahead.
The contest was proving to be a fascinating duel with McGill hitting back with a 74 and 73 to gain the advantage, only for Selby to draw level again to end the session at 4-4.
