World Championship: Jack Lisowski earns sizeable three-frame overnight advantage against Noppon Saengkham in first round

Jack Lisowski will take a 6-3 overnight lead against Noppon Saengkham in the first round of the World Championship at the Crucible.

He took a 2-1 lead in a rapid opening, but Saengkham kept up with a reply to Lisowski’s following two frames.

At 4-3, Saengkham missed a string of good chances which allowed Lisowski to rally to a three-frame overnight lead.

The pair will play out the remainder of their first-round tie at 10:00 BST on Wednesday morning.

An opening break of 102 set the tone for Lisowski who was quickly pegged back by Saengkham in the following frame with the first session poised nicely.

After a scruffy start to the third frame, Lisowski needed a bit of luck to table a run of 50 and regain the lead as the match rattled along at quite a rate.

The Championship’s 12th seed then put together another sizable break of 78 to stretch his advantage to two frames after 41 minutes as he headed for an overnight lead.

In a crucial fifth, Saengkham chased and overturned a 32-point deficit to come from behind and secure the frame with a series of missable pots.

Lisowski produced the shot of the morning from a snooker behind the yellow to clinch a well-earned frame and lead 4-2.

Again, Saengkham replied with a frame of his own when he really needed one to stay within touching distance of Lisowski, who threatened to run away with the tie with some exceptional snooker.

The Thai player had a great opportunity to take control of a tactical encounter in the eighth frame, but skewed a tricky shot with the white bunched together with a cluster of remaining reds.

Lisowski hit 76 to take a 5-3 lead and make the final frame of the first session a crucial one – the difference between 6-3 and 5-4 is likely the difference between a close match and not.

He did enough to get the better of Saengkham and take a commanding 6-3 lead into Wednesday, in what was a fair reflection of Tuesday’s action.

Gary Wilson has all but confirmed his spot in the next round with a 7-2 mauling of Elliot Slessor, while Judd Trump and Anthony McGill will face off on Tuesday afternoon, followed by John Higgins’ tie with David Grace.

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