Malta’s Tony Drago had a negative start to his 16th appearance at the Crucible finals when after the first day, he was 6-3 in arrears against world number nine Stephen Lee.

Lee is now looking favourite to book his place in the last 16 when the match over the ebst of 19 frames, resumes this afternoon.

Lee had won the first frame but Drago hit back to equalise with a 45 clearance in the second frame. Lee then took a 3-1 lead into the break, but on the players’ return, Lee went 4-1 ahead only for Drago to reduce the arrears by winning the sixth frame.

Lee again won two frames in succession to extend his lead to 6-2, but Drago came with some some hope as he clinched the day’s final frame to make it 6-3.

Frame scores: (Lee first) 107-16 48-68 106-9 (100) 126-7 (126) 87-0 (49) 23-52 61-37 61-49 57-69.

The winner of the tie meets the winner of the Peter Ebdon-Quinten Hann match. Ebdon is leading Hann 8-1.Mark Williams became the first ever Welshman to make a maximum 147 break as he booked his place in the second round of the world championship at Sheffield, yesterday.

He finished off a 10-1 mauling of Rob Milkins with his perfect break.

Williams potted 15 reds, 15 blacks and all the colours to claim a £147,000 cash bonus. He will also likely add the high break prize of £14,000.

The 2000 and 2003 champion becomes the fifth player to achieve the feat at the Crucible after Cliff Thorburn, Stephen Hendry, Jimmy White and Ronnie O’Sullivan.

Meanwhile, another former champion, Scotsman Stephen Hendry struggled to go through after having taken a seemingly unassiable 9-3 lead against Neil Robertson of Australia..

Robertson, making his Crucible Theatre debut, took the final frame before the mid-session interval.

And the Melbourne prospect then reeled off the next three frames for good measure, including a break of 110 in frame 16, before Hendry eventually won through 10-7.

Thrashed 17-4 by Ronnie O’Sullivan in last year’s semi-final, his heaviest ever career defeat, Hendry now plays Anthony Hamilton from Nottingham for a place in the quarter-finals.