Robertson happy to overcome 'sticky patch'

Neil Robertson avoided a sticky end to his Betfred.com World Championship campaign but admitted knocking out Fergal O'Brien was as tough as extracting chewing gum from a carpet.

The 28-year-old Australian made a maximum 147 break inside 15 minutes at the recent China Open, but a Crucible record for the slowest frame almost fell as he and O'Brien became entrenched in a tense battle for the crunch 13th frame in their Crucible opener.