2017 World Snooker Championship (Day 1) - Selby & Maguire get through

The first day of the 2017 Betfred World Snooker Championship is over and we already know two players who will be making an appearance in the next round: Mark Selby and Stephen Maguire.

The reigning world champion, Mark Selby had to face Irishman Fergal O'Brien and although he wasn't at his best, his game being a bit scrappy at times, he managed to perform a 10-2 defeat.

The opener was bits and pieces, but on he went "The Jester" with breaks of 50, 41, 41, 68, 50, 63 and 77 to catch an 8-0 advantage over his opponent and going straight to demolishing John Parrott's record of being the only player to ever perform a whitewash at the Crucible.

However, just as the first session was coming to an end, Fergal managed to avoid the drama and won his first frame of the match.

When the lads returned, Selby was sure to go one away from victory with a top break of 92 before the Irish player won a scrapper to prolong the suspense. A few minutes later though, Selby was closing the table at 10-2.

An all Scottish snooker affair took place between Stephen Maguire and Anthony McGill, the final scoreline proving to be just the same as the one obtained by Selby and O'Brien, 10-2 (in favour of Stephen).

Although the start of the match was a pretty balanced one, the players going hand in hand up until 2-2, Maguire took off (almost literally) by using great breaks of 97, 60, 50 and 59 to end the first session in control, at 7-2 up.


The last session didn't last too long, as Maguire's fire proved deadly for McGill who goes home just after one round.

And I can't but mention that Maguire's run earned him no less than 419 consecutive points without reply, which puts him quite close of breaking John Higgins' record of 485.

Another two matches started their first session and interestingly enough ended on the same result of 5-4.

Ronnie O'Sullivan took on Crucible debutante Gary Wilson and after a pretty intense first session he is the one occupying the leading chair.

"The Rocket" used a myriad of breaks (57, 58, 58, 63 and 122) to fly at 4-1 up, but his opponent fought back with a 62 and a 63 to try and catch up with him. And he nearly did, as he is just one frame behind.

In a pretty similar way, Kyren Wilson ended his first session by leading David Grace 5-4, Wilson taking on the first two frames of the match before Grace's 72 break helped him write his name on the scoreboard.

Sunday's match schedule:

10am
Shaun Murphy v Yan Bingtao
Kyren Wilson 5-4 David Grace

2.30pm
Ronnie O'Sullivan 5-4 Gary Wilson
Stuart Bingham v Peter Ebdon

7pm
Marco Fu v Luca Brecel
Mark Allen v Jimmy Robertson

*all hours are UK time

Photos credit: World Snooker