Ronnie O’Sullivan kept hold of his number one ranking after winning five frames in a row to beat Ken Doherty 5-1 in the Wuhan Open first round.
The seven-time world champion would have been knocked off the top of the rankings by Luca Brecel, who is not playing in China, if he had lost.
But, after going 1-0 down, O’Sullivan went on to secure a comfortable win.
Mark Allen could still overtake O’Sullivan as world number one if he wins the tournament.
Allen came from 4-3 down to beat Mark Joyce 5-4 in the first ranking event to be held in Asia after four years off the calendar.
“I’m very pleased to be through, but that was awful,” said Allen. “It’s been a very long time since I’ve played that badly.
“Mentally I was pretty good and that was what got me through, because I had no form.
“I feel that I’ve been letting myself go in terms of the mental side. I worked really hard on that in the last week or so preparing for this tournament.
“I think that really helped me. I wasn’t in a good place with my game, but mentally I was always prepared for the next shot.”
China’s Ding Jinhui came back from 2-1 down to win 5-3 against Ashley Hugill, while Stephen Maguire beat Joe O’Connor 5-2 and Ali Carter earned a 5-2 victory against Bai Yulu.
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