Liang faces daunting task as O'Sullivan takes first-round charge

LIANG WENBO calls Sheffield home but the Chinese potter has enjoyed little by way of 'home comforts' at the Betfred.com World Championship at The Crucible.

His two previous visits have seen him beaten by Ronnie O'Sullivan in 2008 at the quarter-finals stage – after ousting Ken Doherty and Joe Swail – before last year being pitted against countryman Ding Junhui at the first hurdle.

That match attracted a TV audience of 100 million back in China, such is the popularity of the duo in their homeland, and Ding finally triumphed 10-8.

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So after coming through the qualifiers this year, 23-year-old Liang could have been forgiven for cursing his luck when he was pitted against three-times champion O'Sullivan once again.

After yesterday's opening salvo, in which O'Sullivan cantered to a 7-2 advantage, Liang faces an uphill battle to stay in the competition. The world No 1 needs just three frames when their match resumes this afternoon.

While O'Sullivan never reached full flow, he knocked in two centuries within the first four frames and looked set for a possible 147 maximum, after sinking eight reds and blacks, but missed a long red with the balls well-placed.

Liang, who is based in Sheffield during the season and trains at the city's English Institute of Sport – home to the World Snooker Academy – picked up two early frames to be just 3-2 behind.

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Having also lost to O'Sullivan earlier this season when he reached his first ranking final at the Roewe Shanghai Masters, Liang struggled to get any momentum, illustrated by a highest break of just 39.

Victory for O'Sullivan would see him meet another former world champion in Mark Williams, who last night beat Scottish qualifier Marcus Campbell 10-5.

Williams, who many tip as an outsider for the title after winning the China Open last time out, led 5-4 going into last night's session but ran away with the contest after the pair had exchanged the opening frames. Breaks of 54, 71 and 87 saw Williams progress into the second round.

Williams said: "It was a bit of a struggle really. I was just happy with the result more than the performance.

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"Neither of us could get any fluency going, I am just over the moon that I am still left in the competition.

"It looks like I am playing Ronnie O'Sullivan in the next round – on that performance I wish I was playing Gilbert and Sullivan.

"Hopefully I can play a lot better against Ronnie and it will be as good a match as it looks like on paper."

Ali Carter set up a second-round match with Joe Perry – a repeat of their 2008 semi-final – after a 10-4 win over Jamie Cope.

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Carter, though, was not getting carried away with his early success.

"I am just going to turn up and play snooker and see what happens," he said. "I have no expectations. You can't control winning, all I can control is how I play and if I play well the rest will take care of itself."

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