A sickly Shaun Murphy got through his first test at the Betfred.com World Championship, and was thankful his personal life was not played out in front of the cameras. Murphy's estranged wife Clare recently claimed she could disrupt the tournament and serve him with divorce papers after they separated last year, but the match passed without Clare making an appearance.
Asked whether the possible interruption was on his mind, the 26-year-old said: "Of course it was." He also observed a change in the crowd's response to him, having moved from Rotherham to Sale after the breakdown of his marriage.
"I used to come here as the home boy and with all the home support," he said after battling back from 7-6 behind to win 10-8 against Andrew Higginson, a 31-year-old former Welsh Open finalist who was making his Crucible debut. "When I lived here all my allocation of tickets went to the loudest shouters in Rotherham. When I used to walk out, the place used to go nuts, because we told the crowd to shout the loudest. It was just noticeable that those people weren't there."
However, Murphy realises he is not in shape to last the distance in Sheffield, and claims he will only become a serious contender if he can shake off his illness. "I haven't been at my physical peak since I was 12," he joked. "But I wasn't feeling well and I'm going to go home straight to bed and hopefully try to recover."
He will face Marco Fu in the second round, in a repeat of December's Maplin UK Championship final, which Murphy won in a thrilling late-night finish. Fu rattled in three centuries in his opening victory against Joe Swail, and Murphy accepts he will have to improve to give the Hong Kong player a match.
"I saw a bit of Marco's match. He looked like he was playing well, and I'll have to be better than that," Murphy said.
"I've just not been feeling great. I've had headaches and sore throats and sickness and cold and flu symptoms, aches and pains, and I feel like I'm 65. I think I've shown before that I can go the distance here and in other events – I've no doubt that if I was in 100% condition then I would be in the race. But I'm going to struggle, feeling the way I feel just at the moment."
On the other table, Ryan Day moved 6-3 ahead against Stephen Lee, making a break of 120 in the eighth frame.
Trowbridge professional Lee, 34, had to come through qualifying after dropping out of the top 16, and the 2003 semi-finalist was outclassed by Day early on. Day is provisionally ranked sixth for next season, and the 29-year-old from Bridgend was a firm favourite as he attempted to set up a second-round meeting with Peter Ebdon's conqueror Nigel Bond.