Mark Selby began the defence of his World Snooker Championship with a thrilling 10-9 win over Kurt Maflin of Norway.
In the morning session they split the first four frames with the champion twice taking the lead before being pegged back by his rival. Selby took the next three frames after the midsession interval to open up a 5-2 lead but Maflin was able to win the eighth frame before Selby won the final frame of the session to take a 6-3 lead into the evening session.
The world number one made a good start to the evening session by winning two of the first three frames to go 8-4 up but it was at this point that things began to go wrong for "the Jester from Leicester." World number thirty-eight, Maflin, found his stride and won the next five frames to lead 9-8 and go to within one frame of the second round.
However, Selby managed to hold his nerve whilst on the cusp of defeat to win two tense frames to win the match 10-9. Maflin will have won many friends with his performance, particularly in the evening session but unfortunately for the Norwegian he fell just short and Selby lives to fight another day.
Selby will meet the winner of Stephen Maguire and Anthony McGill in the next round and despite hitting two century breaks (108 and 124), he will have to play better if he is to become the first man to retain the title at the first time of asking.
In the other games Marco Fu leads Jimmy Robertson 5-4, Anthony McGill leads fellow Scot Stephen Maguire 6-3, John Higgins is 6-3 up on Robert Milkins and former champion Graeme Dott leads Ricky Walden 5-4.
Sunday's action sees all four of those ties played to a finish (Fu v Robertson at 10am, Walden v Dott at 2.30pm, Maguire v McGill at 7pm and Higgins v Milkins at 7pm) as well as the opening sessions of Barry Hawkins v Matthew Selt (10am) and Neil Robertson v Jamie Jones (2.30pm).