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Chinese players enjoy Crucible debuts as Doherty exits
CHINESE interest in the 888.com World Championship looks like progressing to the second week after an enthralling day at the Crucible Theatre on Wednesday.
After the drama of Ding Junhui's 10-9 victory over Hong Kong's Marco Fu, today was the turn of Chinese pair of Liu Chuang and Liang Wenbo.
Liang knocked out former Crucible champion Ken Doherty 10-5, while Lui was unlucky to trail Ronnie O'Sullivan 5-4.
Doherty opened well with a break of 66, but consistent scoring from the left-hander saw him pile the pressure on the Irishman.
Breaks of 77, 58, 50, 68, 51 and 95 saw him win six out of the next seven frames, going into the evening's session.
If anyone thought Liang might stumble, they were wrong as the pair traded the first two frames of the evening.
And the former World Under-21 champion picked off a 55 break in the next frame. It eventually went to a black ball games, level on 67-67, but Doherty dropped the white and lost the frame.
The 1997 World Champion reduced the deficit to 9-5, edging two tight frames, but had to win all five remaining frames to pull off an unlikely win. But that proved to be beyond Doherty as Liang won a tactical bout to clinch victory.
Countryman Liu, only the fourth 17-year-old to appear at the Crucible after Stephen Hendry, Ronnie O'Sullivan and Judd Trump, looked in trouble when tournament favourite O'Sullivan cruised into a 3-0 lead with breaks of 76 and 84.
But the teenager steadied his nerves with a break of 92, before snatching the fifth frame to make it 3-2.
Liu is playing his debut season on the professional Tour and had to beat five players in the qualifying rounds just to reach the stage of the Crucible.
O'Sullivan wasn't playing well, but credit to Liu who failed to be intimidated and after some cat-and-mouse play, knocked in a 31 clearance to level scores at 3-3. It looked like Liu may even take a shock lead in frame seven, but O'Sullivan cleared the table with a 57 break to pip the youngster.
A 55 knock was good enough to bring parity again for Liu, and only a missed green prevented him from taking a 5-4 lead into today's concluding session.
Earlier in the day, former world champion Graeme Dott's miserable season ended in a first-round 10-7 defeat to Joe Perry. It was Dott's 16th match without a win.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
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Temperature: 9 C to 23 C
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Temperature: 9 C to 23 C
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