Judd Trump survives scare against Liang Wenbo at World Championship in Sheffield
By PA Sport
Last Updated: 28/04/16 6:15pm
Judd Trump produced a great escape to keep alive his hopes of a first World Championship title.
Trump was deep in first-round trouble at the tournament he regards as being "10 times bigger" than any other when he dropped the opening frame of the day to slide 7-3 behind against Liang Wenbo.
The 26-year-old, who reached the 2011 Crucible final and was a semi-finalist last year, then looked in trouble in the 11th frame, until Liang missed a tricky blind double on the green.
The miss proved the turning point and although Trump was not at his best, he clawed it back to 7-5 before a sparkling 106 took him to within one frame.
A nine-minute delay in the 14th frame interrupted the flow of the match as 26-year-old German referee Marcel Eckardt took his time over replacing the scattered balls after Trump fouled.
Trump made light of the situation to level the match, added 69 in the next frame to go ahead, and despite Liang drawing level at 8-8 it was the Bristol-born cueman who marched through, punching the air in relief at the end.
Joe Perry suffered a final-frame defeat in the last of the first-round matches to finish, going down 10-9 to Kyren Wilson.
The 10th seed scrapped his way to a decider by taking a marathon 18th but Wilson - tipped as a future world No 1 by Ronnie O'Sullivan on social media as the final session was played - edged it to set up a meeting with Mark Allen.
