Teenager Liu coasts to China wildcard win

Nineteen-year-old Liu, who qualified for the World Championship two years ago, again demonstrated his potential by overwhelming 38-year-old Rory McLeod 5-0.

The Chinese teenager made a break of 104 in the opening frame and restricted McLeod to just 42 points in the entire match.

Liu, who won five matches to qualify for the Crucible two years ago but then dropped off the pro Tour last season, is based at Sheffield's World Snooker Academy during the snooker season.

China's Tian Pengfei set up a clash with Ronnie O'Sullivan in the first round by ousting Mark Davis 5-4 in the wildcard stage.

Davis, 37, has qualified for next month's Betfred.com World Championship and won December's non-ranking Six-Red World Championship event.

He produced a career-best break of 143 against Tian but lost the match 5-4 to his 22-year-old opponent, who goes on to take on O'Sullivan tomorrow.

Veteran Thai player James Wattana also came through the wild-card round, with the 40-year-old knocking out Hong Kong player Au Chi Wai 5-0, and he will play Mark King next.

Andrew Higginson romped to a 5-0 win over Li Yan to set up a first-round clash with Stephen Hendry.

Another Englishmen, Robert Milkins, also advanced after a 5-2 victory over Lu Chenwei and Rod Lawler set up a meeting with Masters champion Mark Selby as he saw off the challenge of Thailand's Supoj Saenla by five frames to three.