After an eight year absence from snooker's showpiece event, Rob Milkins returned and showed why he is ranked nineteenth in the world. Gloucester's Milkins put in a battling performance and trails Neil Robertson by only 5-4, writes Matthew Thomas.
From the offset it looked like the 2010 world champion would dominate as he knocked in 78 and 76 to take the opening two frames. However, Milkins hit back with a run of 88 to reduce the deficit to one before a 66 from Robertson gave him a 3-1 lead at the interval.
A scrappy fifth frame went Milkins' way but then the Australian knocked in the highest break of the tournament so far with a 143 bettering the mark set by Judd Trump by a single point.
Robertson also took frame seven to lead 5-2 and it looked like Milkins would have an unassailable deficit to overturn. Yet he dug deep and won the final two frames of the session adding a break of 52 in the last to cut the gap to 5-4 going into their concluding session on Wednesday morning. All to play for!
2012 semi-finalist Matthew Stevens bowed out in the first round with 10-7 defeat to Hong Kong's Marco Fu.
The two time runner-up was on the verge of embarrassment as a succession of missed shots and poor safety handed Fu a 9-4 lead.
Stevens managed to win the next three with breaks of 65 and 53 in frame sixteen before the former Grand Prix champion took the last to go through to face Judd Trump.
After having to battle food poisoning to make it past Dominic Dale the previous season, Trump was much more comfortable this time. Dale had a chance to put his name in the Crucible history books with a chance of a maximum 147 in frame 14, but on 96 he left himself a long red which he missed which would have put him in the driver's seat for the high break prize and the Golden Cue. Trump finished off the match knocking in breaks of 104, 73 and 61 to ease to a 10-5 win.
From the offset it looked like the 2010 world champion would dominate as he knocked in 78 and 76 to take the opening two frames. However, Milkins hit back with a run of 88 to reduce the deficit to one before a 66 from Robertson gave him a 3-1 lead at the interval.
A scrappy fifth frame went Milkins' way but then the Australian knocked in the highest break of the tournament so far with a 143 bettering the mark set by Judd Trump by a single point.
Robertson also took frame seven to lead 5-2 and it looked like Milkins would have an unassailable deficit to overturn. Yet he dug deep and won the final two frames of the session adding a break of 52 in the last to cut the gap to 5-4 going into their concluding session on Wednesday morning. All to play for!
2012 semi-finalist Matthew Stevens bowed out in the first round with 10-7 defeat to Hong Kong's Marco Fu.
The two time runner-up was on the verge of embarrassment as a succession of missed shots and poor safety handed Fu a 9-4 lead.
Stevens managed to win the next three with breaks of 65 and 53 in frame sixteen before the former Grand Prix champion took the last to go through to face Judd Trump.
After having to battle food poisoning to make it past Dominic Dale the previous season, Trump was much more comfortable this time. Dale had a chance to put his name in the Crucible history books with a chance of a maximum 147 in frame 14, but on 96 he left himself a long red which he missed which would have put him in the driver's seat for the high break prize and the Golden Cue. Trump finished off the match knocking in breaks of 104, 73 and 61 to ease to a 10-5 win.
