A TEARFUL John Higgins managed to avoid an opening-day defeat against youngster Jack Lisowski at the Wyldecrest Park Homes Welsh Open in Newport yesterday.

World number one Higgins, playing the first match since the death of his father last week, struggled before eventually dispatching 19-year-old Englishman Lisowski.

“My mum told me to come down and do my dad proud,” said the Scot, through tears in his post-match press conference.

“I'd not picked up a cue, but to play was what my dad would have wanted. I was thinking about him being here last year. I was all over the place, I couldn't concentrate. But it was good to be back playing.”

Lisowski let Higgins know he was in a game by sneaking the first frame in a flying start featuring some lovely shots.

He was less accurate in the second as Higgins brought it back to 1-1 and the slip-ups continued as Higgins produced several 50-something breaks to go 3-1 up.

The Scot was making mistakes of his own, however, and after a 47 saw Lisowski take it to 3-2 the youngster levelled the match.

However, Higgins' class told in the end as Lisowski wasted his opportunity and the world number one held on to set up a last-16 clash with Dave Harold.

Carmarthen’s Matthew Stevens pleased his Welsh fans by beating Anthony Hamilton 4-2 in their qualifier to book a first round date with Shaun Murphy.

Hamilton won the opening frame with a 71 then Stevens took three on the spin with a best effort of 65. Hamilton pulled one back before Stevens finished the job in frame six.

Masters champion Ding Junhai survived a stern test to progress. The Chinese player quickly found himself 2-0 down to Marcus Campbell in the best-of-seven-frames encounter but fought back to triumph 4-3.

The tournament has a new format this year with shorter matches and no interval, and Ding is a fan.

“I prefer not to have an interval because it makes it more like practice when you are playing all the time with no breaks,” he said. “In the interval I tend to just practise anyway, so I prefer to just keep playing.’’

Gwent’s Mark Williams gets his campaign under way this afternoon when he takes on Marco Fu from 1pm.

Fellow Welshman Ryan Day was in action last night against snooker legend Jimmy White.

But the Pontycymer potter was not blown away by the Whirlwind, racing to a 4-0 victory in just 48 minutes.

Monday’s results: Ding Junhui (Chn) bt Marcus Campbell (Sco) 4-3, Dave Harold (Eng) bt Ricky Walden (Eng) 4-3, Allister Carter (Eng) bt Barry Hawkins (Eng) 4-3, Matthew Stevens (Wal) bt Anthony Hamilton (Eng) 4-2, John Higgins (Sco) bt Jack Lisowski (Eng) 4-3, Mark King (Eng) bt Michael Holt (Eng) 4-1, Ryan Day (Wal) bt Jimmy White (Eng) 4-0.

Tuesday’s order of play: 1pm – Mark Williams v Marco Fu and Mark Allen v Rod Lawler, 2pm – Mark Selby v Stuart Bingham and Peter Ebdon v Dominic Dale, 7pm – Graeme Dott v Jamie Burnett, Neil Robertson v Nigel Bond.