Ireland's Ken Doherty was given a scare by the little known Chan Wai Tat during the first round of the £295,000 Thailand Masters at the Ambassador Hotel in Bangkok last night.
Doherty, cruising at 4-1, was made to sweat for two frames before completing an unconvincing 5-3 win over his opponent, a wild card entry from Hong Kong.
Ronnie O'Sullivan became the only member of the world's top 10 to stumble when he was unexpectedly beaten 5-4 by Welshman Darren Morgan.
O'Sullivan, with his hand still bandaged after breaking his little finger in a fall at home last week, was 4-1 down at one stage but after runs of 70 and 76 he hauled his way back to 4-4. However, Morgan eventually edged through a scrappy 30-minute decider by potting a tricky blue along the side cushion.
John Higgins, the bookmakers' favourite for the £50,000 first prize and his fourth title of the season, scored a comfortable 5-2 victory over Ian McCulloch (England) thanks to runs of 77, 75, 83 and 61.
World number five Mark Williams, winner of the Irish Open in December and the Welsh Open a month later, was forced to recover from 3-2 adrift to beat Scot Hugh Abernethy 5-3.
Stephen Hendry, John Parrott and Alan McManus had earlier all completed great escapes to squeeze into the last 16.
Defending champion Hendry, bidding for back-to-back ranking titles after winning the Scottish Open 10 days ago, edged out Paul Davies 5-4 after trailing 4-2.
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