Dominant Robertson Through to Second Round

Neil Robertson sealed a 10-4 victory over Nigel Bond to go through to the second round of the World Snooker Championship.

Robertson, 26, went into today's session with a 7-2 lead over Bond, a finalist in 1995. Bond had reduced the deficit in the 10th with a break of 67 but Robertson responded with a 63. The Australian took the match with an 84 break and will play either Stephen Maguire or Anthony Hamilton on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Ryan Day will take a 5-4 lead into the final session of his match with Michael Judge tomorrow. Day shared the first four quick fire frames with Judge, knocking in an 83. After the mid-session he took a 95 and won the next to lead 4-2. Judge won the seventh and a protracted eighth, but Welshman Day took his third half-century of the session to finish with a 5-4 lead.

It follows yesterday's action at The Crucible, when John Higgins took an impressive 10-5 win over Matthew Stevens as he begun the defence of his world championship. Ahead of the match, Higgins had said he feared Stevens - twice a runner-up in the competition - and the Welshman did take an early lead. Yet Higgins turned it around and was leading 7-2 by lunch. When play resumed, Stevens recovered to 7-5, but Higgins scored heavily in the final three frames to win.