Ronnie rockets into second round

World number one Ronnie O'Sullivan overcame former UK Champion Matthew Stevens on the final day of first round action, to secure a comprehensive 9-3 victory, writes Rob Hayes.

Stevens took an early 2-0 lead before losing five of the remaining six frames in the session, to go into the interval 5-3 down.

The Rocket then won four frames in a row to book his place in the second round against Peter Ebdon.

Ding Junhui completed a superb comeback against qualifier Mike Dunn, coming back from 5-2 down to win seven straight frames and claim a 9-5 victory.

Dunn seemed unable to cope with the 22 year-old in the evening session, as Ding knocked in a string of half-centuries, showing that he will be a force to be reckoned with when he faces defending UK Champion Shaun Murphy in round two.

Peter Lines, the lowest-ranked player to qualify for the tournament provided the upset of the round, beating last year's runner-up Marco Fu 9-3 to set up a meeting with Welshman Mark Williams.

Lines, who turns 40 this week, is ranked at number 64 in the world, and his best ever performance at a ranking event came at the 1999 China Open, where he reached the quarter-finals, beating John Higgins and Peter Ebdon along the way.

The Leeds-based potter will be hoping to reproduce his form of 10 years ago to stand a chance of reaching the last eight in Telford.

The final first round match to finish saw qualifier Rory McLeod force world number five Ally Carter to dig deep, as he went 4-1 up before Carter came back to grind out the result and win 9-7.

Four second round matches also began on Monday, with 22 year-old Chinese potter Liang Wenbo opening up an impressive 7-1 lead over Mark King, and Stephen Maguire striding to a 6-2 advantage over Stuart Bingham after a terrific performance in the first session.

There was little to choose between John Higgins and Neil Robertson on table one, as the session ended 5-3 in the world champion's favour, and the weekend's comeback king Mark Selby edged 5-3 in front against Stephen Hendry.