Fergal O'Brien made defending champion Mark Williams work hard this afternoon as he began the defence of his Travis Perkins UK Championship title in York.
The Welshman has not lost a first-round match in a ranking event since February 1998 - a record stretching back for 48 tournaments. But Williams only ended his first session with Dubliner O'Brien level at 4-4. He trailed 3-1 and 4-2 before producing a 40 clearance to secure the seventh frame.
Williams outrageously fluked the green in the last frame of the session, but only won it after trapping O'Brien in a snooker on the pink behind the black. O'Brien failed to escape three times and unluckily went in-off when he did make contact.
He battled on for a snooker, dragging the frame out to 47 minutes, but Williams eventually knocked the pink in to achieve parity. The 28-year-old left-hander opened the match with a break of 103, but O'Brien - the 1999 British Open champion - replied with runs of 77, 42 and 100 to lead 3-1.
Williams won a scrappy fifth before O'Brien responded with a break of 58 to lead 4-2, but he could not extend his advantage as the world number one made it 4-4. It left each player five frames away from a place in the last 16, where 1992 champion Jimmy White awaits.
Stephen Hendry, who won the British Open title last week, established a 6-2 first-session lead over John Parrott. Hendry, who beat Ronnie O'Sullivan 9-6 in the final at Brighton, ended the session with breaks of 73 and 128. The 34-year-old Scot, five times a winner of the UK title, edged 3-1 ahead after a nervy start.
And Hendry was fortunate to fluke the green in the fifth, before producing a clearance to the black to snatch three-frame lead. Parrott, the 1991 world and UK champion, won the sixth with a highest break of 45, but Hendry finished strongly to move to within three frames of a third-round meeting with Ali Carter.
Victory for Hendry would be the 25th time he has beaten Parrott in 40 meetings since their first in 1986.