Brave Liang sends Doherty packing

The Chinese impact on the World Snooker Championship gathered force as Liang Wenbo shocked former Crucible king Ken Doherty 10-5.

On Tuesday, Ding Junhui became the first player from mainland China to reach the last 16 of snooker's premier event.

Less than 24 hours later, he was followed by Liang, who played superbly to send 1997 champion Doherty crashing out at the first hurdle for the second consecutive year.

Liu Chuang failed to join his fellow Chinese cuemen in the last 16 yesterday after going down 10-5 to Ronnie O'Sullivan.

Liang, a former world under-21 champion from Hei Longjiang who is based at the World Snooker Academy in Sheffield, is through to the last 16 of a ranking event for the first time in his career and will now face Joe Swail.

For Dublin's Doherty the result is a major setback as he now looks sure to drop out of the top 16 of the rankings for the first time in 15 years. Just 12 months ago, the Irishman had a chance at the world No. 1 spot, but lost in the the first round to Mark Allen.

He has suffered a sequence of poor results in ranking events this term - in contrast to his performances in invitation events. He won Pot Black, reached the semi-finals of the SAGA Insurance Masters and the final of the Malta Cup, but those highlights count for nothing in terms of his place among the elite.

Liang led 7-2 after the first session thanks to breaks of 77, 58, 68, 51 and 95, and he added the first frame on Wednesday night with a 56. Doherty pulled one back and cleared from the brown in the next for a respotted black, but then went in-off attempting safety to fall 9-3 behind.

The 38-year-old battled on and pulled two frames back with a top run of 69. But Liang was not to be denied and got the better of a scrappy 15th frame for victory.

First round results: Liang bt Doherty 10-5; O'Sullivan bt Chuang 10-5; Murphy bt Harold 10-3; Maguire bt Hamilton 10-3.