Ronnie O’Sullivan held off qualifier Pang Junxu to seal a 10-7 win as his hunt for a record eighth World Championship title in the modern era got under way.

However, Pang fought back with breaks of 78, 70 and 73 before O’Sullivan confirmed victory with an 81 break.

O’Sullivan, 47, will face Ding Junhui or Hossein Vafaei in the second round.

Two-time finalist Ali Carter will have to come from behind when his match with Jak Jones resumes on Sunday evening (19:00 BST).

While Carter made a sublime 143 break and two half-centuries the Welsh debutant edged the first session 5-4 including four half-century breaks of his own.

Earlier on Saturday, Stuart Bingham reeled off five consecutive frames to move 6-3 ahead against fellow Englishman David Gilbert in their first-round meeting.

Bingham, 46, who won the world title in 2015, made an impressive 108 break to claim the first frame but was then forced to watch as Gilbert took control with breaks of 60, 90 and a superb 121 to establish a 3-1 lead at the interval.

However, Bingham compiled breaks of 78 and 87 as the contest swung back heavily in his favour. That match resumes at 10:00 BST on Sunday.

‘Tired and shaky’ O’Sullivan gets the job done

It was far from vintage O’Sullivan but he exhibited more than enough quality to secure a 27th second-round appearance at the tournament and suggest he will once again be difficult to stop despite suffering from a virus.

“I felt shaky, heavy and desperate. I just wanted to get over the line,” said O’Sullivan.”Sometimes you have to get through those situations. Stephen Hendry won the World Championship here with a broken arm. I’ve got a bit of a bug. It feels like glandular fever, which I had a long time ago.

“It just saps all the energy out of you but you fight – it’s a World Championship isn’t it?”I’m relieved it’s over. My legs and limbs have gone. I was so desperate to get over the line in every frame. I am so tired and I can’t wait to get back to my bed.”

Chinese debutant Pang, 23, will take heart from his Crucible bow and the manner of his spirited fightback, but the damage was done during the first session of the day.

He rarely looked settled on Saturday morning and even walked into the arena through the wrong entrance after being introduced.

He also quickly found his victory over O’Sullivan in their only previous meeting – the much shorter format of the Championship League – carried little weight on the sport’s grandest stage.

An initial break of 50 was about as good as it got for Pang as the seven-time champion repeatedly punished him for loose safety shots, poor shot selection and missed pots to compile breaks of 61, 53 and 71 on the way to a commanding 5-0 lead.

However, Pang displayed plenty of resilience with a superb 133 break and an 83 on the way to reducing the arrears.

Having given himself a glimmer of hope, his failure to make the most of two chances to make sizeable contributions when among the balls served as an invitation for O’Sullivan to get up and running with a break of 82.

Pang responded by pinching the 11th frame on the colours but with the Englishman’s exemplary cue-ball control and superior match-play coming to the fore, O’Sullivan extended his lead to 9-4 and withstood his opponent’s fightback to progress.

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