Zhao Xintong made a scrappy start to his Halo World Snooker Championship defence before putting away qualifier Liam Highfield 10-7 at the Crucible.
Zhao triumphed in Sheffield a year ago but was at risk of following in the footsteps of Luca Brecel and Kyren Wilson, who fell at the first hurdle when defending their crown in 2024 and 2025 respectively.
At the end of the opening session he had a wafer thin 5-4 lead over Highfield, who has never won a match in the main draw but soon found himself level-pegging with the world number four.
Zhao’s rough edges continued but he turned the tide by claiming a pivotal 11th frame and wrapped up the best-of-19 clash after a courageous long plant on his first red, opening up the table for a match-winning century.
“Tonight was pressure, it was very difficult for me,” he told BBC Sport.
“Two days ago I thought I could control that, not now. I just tried to control myself and enjoy the table, but tonight I didn’t do it well. Hopefully next round I can do it.”
A blockbuster second-round match against Chinese compatriot Ding Junhui awaits on Friday, should the latter beat David Gilbert first, and Zhao added: “If I play Ding, everyone keeps eyes on us. If I play with Ding, I’ll feel good.”
Zhao had kicked things off by taking the first two frames of the day, which began with a minute’s applause for John Virgo, the much-loved former player and commentator who died in February.
Breaks of 124 and 128 suggested he was finding some rhythm, but he made a series of uncharacteristic mistakes to let the Englishman back in and would have welcomed the break in play to compose himself.
When the contest resumed he drew gasps from the crowd when he went in off the pink, Highfield drawing level to bring the upset closer. With the pressure on, Zhao picked the perfect moment to pick up three successive frames, reeling off some outrageous long pots to put move 8-5 ahead.
A horrible miss on a simple black could have cost him the 14th, but a series of errors from both men eventually saw him pick off green and blue to nick a messy frame and go within touching distance. Highfield did not give up, taking the next two, but Zhao’s willingness to take on a low percentage red settled matters.
Barry Hawkins, the 2013 runner-up, took a dominant 7-2 advantage over Matthew Stevens. He was 2-1 down after a slow start but shut out the Welshman for the remainder of the evening, with a top break of 99.
Mark Williams took a 6-3 lead over Polish qualifier Antoni Kowalski but there was little to pick between Xiao Guodong and Zhou Yuelong, with the former edging it 5-4 in the afternoon’s play.
In the morning session, 14th seed Mark Allen went 5-3 down to Zhang Anda with the Northern Irishman losing three in a row before halting the momentum just before the interval.
