Swail trails to Liang

China’s Liang Wenbo reproduced the form which accounted for former champion Ken Doherty to take an early lead in his second round clash with Joe Swail at the 888.com World Championship today.

Liang beat Doherty 10-5 in the first round at the Crucible and proved that was no fluke as he opened up a 3-1 lead over Northern Ireland’s Swail at the mid-session interval.

The 21-year-old qualifier won the first two frames with breaks of 84 and 90, Swail failing to pot a single ball.

Swail finally got on the scoreboard with a break of 45 in the next but ran out of position from the pink and then played a terrible safety shot to let Liang in to snatch the frame, but did at least take the final frame before the interval 64-43.

On the other table Stuart Bingham and Joe Perry were level at 2-2, Bingham twice taking the lead only to be pegged back by Perry, who knocked out former champion Graeme Dott in the first round.