Zhao Xintong ensured that he did not follow the likes of Luca Brecel and Kyren Wilson (and, as a much older example, Steve Davis in 1982) and become the latest defending world champion to fall at the first hurdle when he defeated Englishman Liam Highfield, making his first appearance at the Crucible since 2022, 10-7, fighting off a valiant effort by Highfield, who, from 9-5 down, took it to 9-7, before Xintong got over the line with a classy 112.
The Championship got off to a very emotional start when the entire Crucible stood to honour the late great John Virgo, who had died on 4th February, with a minute's applause, with legends such as Stephen Hendry, Jimmy White, and Steve Davis visibly moved by the tribute to their great colleague and close friend.
Another player who is into the last sixteen is Barry Hawkins, a player who enjoyed a marvellous run at the Crucible from 2013, where he lost to Ronnie O'Sullivan in the final, and reaching the semi-final stage in 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018, as well as reaching the quarter-final in 2016 - Hawkins defeated Welshman Matthew Stevens 10-4. After the two men had shared the opening four frames on Saturday afternoon, Hawkins pulled away to lead 7-2 heading into their second session, which concluded this morning with Stevens winning the first two frames before Hawkins completed the victory by clinching the last two frames before the interval and the first two frames following the break.
Antrim's Mark Allen, whose own record at the Crucible has not been particularly impressive, played some extremely impressive snooker this morning by defeating the highly talented Zang Anda 10-6 after having begun the second session trailing 3-5 overnight. In a high-scoring encounter, Anda registered breaks of 129, 109 and three seventy-plus breaks, while Allen, who has only appeared twice in the one-table set up, losing in the semi-finals in both 2009 and 2023 to John Higgins and Mark Selby respectively, scored breaks of 140, 129, 112, and 109, and will be a threat if he continues to play as well as he did especially in the second half of his match.
John Higgins would have been delighted in how he had started his first-round encounter against Ali Carter, who had twice reached the final only to fall to the one and only Ronnie O' Sullivan, going into the mid-session interval 4-0, however, things turned dramatically after the interval, with Carter claiming all remaining five frames to lead 5-4 going into tomorrow afternoon's concluding session. 2014 runner-up Ding Junhui, who for so many years was highly fancied to become China's first ever world champion, was in excellent form in leading 7-2 over David Gillbert, with the pair returning tomorrow, with the 'Angry Farmer' needing an almost miraculous turn in form to prevent Ding taking his place in the last sixteen. In the course of the session, Ding became only the eighth player to achieve a century of centuries at the World Championship
In the all-Chinese clash between Xiao Guodong and Zhou Yeulong, it was Guodong who got one over his friend with a 10-6 victory. The first session on Saturday had seen Guodong take a narrow 5-4 lead going into Sunday evening's concluding session after Zhou had begun the match in scintillating form with back-to-back century breaks. The evening session saw both players share the opening four frames before Zhou took total command after the interval, making breaks of 115 and 128 before finishing the match with a 81 break to book himself a place in the second round.
FIRST ROUND RESULTS
Zhao Xintong 10 - 7 Liam Highfield
Xiao Guodong 10 - 6 Zhou Yuelong
Mark Allen 10 - 6 Zhang Anda
Barry Hawkins 10 - 4 Matthew Stevens
Mark Williams 10 - 4 Antoni Kowalski
ORDER OF PLAY
MONDAY 20th APRIL 2026
10AM
Ding Junhui (7) - (2) David Gilbert - Play to Finish
Kyren Wilson - Stan Moody
2.30PM
John Higgins (4) - (5) Ali Carter - Play to Finish
Wu Yize v Lei Peifan
7PM
Shaun Murphy v Fan Zhengyi
Kyren Wilson v Stan Moody - Play to Finish
TUESDAY 21st APRIL 2026
10AM
Chris Wakelin v Liam Pullen
Judd Trump v Gary Wilson
2.30PM
Ronnie O'Sullivan v He Guoqiang
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