Amateur James Cahill leads shaky Ronnie O’Sullivan after opening session

Tournament favourite heading into the tournament, O’Sullivan was expected to make light work of Cahill, who won three qualifying rounds to make history by appearing at the first-round stage in Sheffield.

However, O’Sullivan rushed a number of pots and looked out of sorts as he fell a frame behind his 23-year-old opponent, with best-of-19 encounter concluding on Tuesday morning.

Cahill edged the first frame 68-67 with a superb final black to announce himself on the World Championship stage, and the amateur continued to look unfazed despite O’Sullivan moving 2-1 and then 3-2 in front.

O’Sullivan was leading 4-3 when he twice missed the green to allow Cahill to move level at 4-4, with the youngster – who was only five when O’Sullivan held aloft the first of his five world titles – going on to clinch the final frame.

“I don’t mind playing him. I don’t mind playing anyone. I know it’s the toughest draw,” Cahill had told Eurosport ahead of the match. “I’ve played him three times before. I’ve played well against him in the past, but have obviously never played him here.

“I’ve beaten Mark Selby, Neil Robertson, Ding Junhui and Shaun Murphy in the past..I’ve proved I can beat good players.”

Meanwhile, John Higgins advanced to the second round after holding off a spirited challenge from Mark Davis to win 10-7.

Four-time champion Higgins led 6-3 following Sunday’s session, but that was marred by reports of his brother sustaining a suspected broken kneecap when suffering a fall backstage.

The Scot went to the hospital with his brother, Jason but regained his focus to reached the second round on Monday.

“He’s in quite a lot of pain. It is a freak accident, and just the way these things happen," Higgins told Eurosport.

“I spent six or seven hours at the hospital last night.

“He’ll be out of commission for a couple of months. Just a freak accident. He was coming down off the last step and his trainer stuck on the step.

“The full force has went onto his knee cap so he’s fractured that. We’ll need to get him back up the road to get a look at it.”

Higgins had lost nine of his previous 11 encounters with Davis, who closed the gap to 6-5 after winning Monday’s opening two frame.

However, Higgins just about kept his nose in front before closing it out in style, securing breaks of 135 and 132 to win frames 14 and 16 before completing the victory a frame later.