World Snooker Championship: Neil Robertson and Kurt Maflin reach second round

Updated 02/08/2020 at 21:59 GMT

Neil Robertson progressed to the second round of the World Snooker Championship with a 10-5 win over Liang Wenbo.

Neil Robertson im Crucible Theatre in Aktion

Image credit: Eurosport

The world No 2 only lost one frame in the evening session as he eased to victory.

While he couldn’t match his earlier breaks of 140 and 122, Robertson was helped by breaks of 97 and 89 as he outclassed his opponent.

The 2010 champion will face either Barry Hawkins or Alexander Ursenbacher in the next round.

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Wenbo looked to have some momentum as he finished the first session with a 113 break and then took the opening frame of the evening to level the match at 5-5.

However, that was as close as he got to winning the match as Robertson reeled off the next five frames.

The Australian hit 97 and 89 in back-to-back frames before capitalising on a bad miss on a black to win the 13th frame.

World Snooker Championship: Liang Wenbo makes costly miss on black against Neil Robertson

Wenbo didn't recover from that and Robertson swept into the second round.

Maflin beats Gilbert in tight contest

Kurt Maflin battled into the second round after beating David Gilbert 10-8 in a high-quality contest.

The evening session started with the players trading 102 breaks, making it four frames in a row with century breaks.

World Snooker Championship: David Gilbert hits century break against Kurt Maflin

Gilbert followed up with a 93 and then won the next frame to move ahead 7-6 in the match.

But Maflin replied with a 97 and, after Gilbert won the 15th frame, a 105 break to level at 8-8.

The 105 could have been more as Maflin was on for a maximum, but after potting a difficult red he ran into the blue as the white ball flew around the table, much to his annoyance, with his frustrated gesture earning him a warning from the referee.