SHEFFIELD, April 18: Defending champion Mark Williams held off the challenge of Dominic Dale and the stress of becoming a father to win 10-7 in the first round of the world championship at the Crucible Theatre on Saturday.

After Williams posted a 6-3 lead at the end of the opening session, Dale fought back strongly and won four out of the next five frames to level at 7-7. But Williams held his nerve to book his place in the last 16.

Williams said he was not focused on snooker in the build up to the match after he became a father for the first time on the eve of the tournament when his fiancee gave birth to a baby boy. Williams believes he can now put the stress of the last few weeks behind him and make further progress in the competition.

Dale had no complaints about the defeat at the hands of his Welsh counterpart. "Mark gave me the chances but I didn't take them," he said. "Mark was struggling a bit, but like a true champion he found his game."

Qualifier Andy Hicks has a 6-3 overnight lead over Australian Quinten Hann. Ken Doherty, last year's beaten finalist, trails Joe Swail 5-4 at the end of their first session as the latter fought back to win the last three frames after finding himself 4-2 down.

Results: Mark Williams (Wales) beat Dominic Dale (Wales) 10-7. Frame scores (Williams first): 48-79 149-0 85-1 68-43 78-9 79-50 125-10 14-85 43-89 30-64 108-7 13-76 0-68 40-60 76-44 77-16 83-35. Alan McManus (Scotland) beat Chris Small (Scotland) 10-1.