Ding Junhui suffers familiar Crucible feeling after a day of theatrics at World Championship

Seven-time world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan arrived in Sheffield in ominous form, Barry Hearn started banging the drum about snooker leaving the Crucible once again, and Ding Junhui’s crusade to finally become a world champion ended at the first hurdle.

The debate over whether the World Championship should move from the Crucible – its home since 1977 – to cash in on a lucrative overseas market, like China or Saudi Arabia, raises its head every few years.

So with the current Crucible deal set to expire in 2027, former World Snooker chairman Hearn appeared on BBC to throw down the gauntlet to Sheffield City Council to replace the famous Sheffield theatre with a new, shiny building which could house 3,000 fans.

If the tournament does leave the Crucible in 2027, what are the odds O’Sullivan will have banked a record eighth world title before then?

Judging by the way he started on Wednesday, efficiently sweeping aside the challenge of Welshman Jackson Page to lead 8-1 – needing just two more frames on Thursday when their first-round match concludes – O’Sullivan is again the man to beat this year. How China’s Ding would love just one of O’Sullivan’s seven Crucible crowns.

For any player to score nine breaks in excess of 50 – including two centuries 127and 131 – and lose 10-9, you can only have sympathy.

That was Ding’s misfortune on Wednesday, losing to Jack Lisowski, and beaten in the Crucible’s first round for the fourth successive year in his adopted hometown.

Ding, 37, has lived and trained in Sheffield since he was a teenager, but having won everything snooker has to offer, the world title continues to elude him. And the wait will go on for at least another 12 months.

Trailing 5-4 overnight, the Chinese cueman slipped to 9-7 behind but after Gloucester’s Lisowski missed a blue to the middle, a 56 break and a superb 131 clearance forced the deciding frame.

Both players had chances, but when Ding refused a long red, Lisowski gambled and it paid off with a stunning shot to clinch the match.

Lisowski said: “The blue was a tough shot. If I lost, I would probably have looked back on it and thought it was my chance. I made sure it wasn’t like that and took my chances in the last frame. I think I really stepped up.

“It is the way I play. If I get negative and keep playing safeties, it isn’t going to work against anyone. It is tough to do, but I hit two really sweet long shots in the last frame.

“I played some good positional shots as well and it was a fantastic feeling making the breaks.”

Ding was the seventh seed to lose against a qualifier in the opening round, one short of the Crucible record.

Next for Lisowski is a second-round clash with fellow qualifier Stuart Bingham, the 2015 Crucible champion.

“Stuart is the first player I ever beat on TV and the first player I ever beat here,” recalled Lisowski. “I have good memories against him, but he is a fantastic player and a former world champion.

“I am going to have to keep up the good stuff and he is going to make it really tough for me.

“It is the World Championship, I’m enjoying my snooker and being here. I’m really looking forward to the match.”

While seeds have been an endangered species in the first round in Sheffield, Kyren Wilson comfortably cleared the opening hurdle.

The world No 12 swiftly converted an 8-1 overnight lead into a 10-1 thrashing of Dominic Dale, at 52, the oldest player to compete at the Crucible since Steve Davis in 2010.

Wilson, who next plays Leicester’s Joe O’Connor – winner over Mark Selby in the first round – knocked in a century and eight further 50-plus breaks.

The 2020 runner-up is no stranger to the Crucible, having reached the last 16 for the ninth consecutive year.

“It was strange coming back at 8-1 but I tried to keep doing all the right things in terms of what time I got up this morning and making sure I practised before the session,” said the 32-year-old from Kettering.

“I scored heavily throughout the match and that is an asset for me. Even though I haven't had the results I wanted this season, my scoring stats are still good (only Judd Trump has made more centuries).

“Some players are suited to the Crucible environment and I would like to think I'm in that mould.

“If I continue like that then someone will have to play very well to stop me.

“Joe O'Connor will be a very tough test, I wasn't that surprised when he beat Mark Selby because I know how good he is.

“He is also well suited to the Crucible, he has an all-round game and doesn't get fazed easily.”

Mark Allen held off a fightback from Robbie Williams to win 10-6.