体坛英语新闻：Liang Wenbo says UK Championship no special after first-round out

YORK, Britain, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- China's snooker player Liang Wenbo left the UK Championship after his first-round 6-4 defeat to Barry Hawkins on Saturday.

The Championship, boasting a history of more than 30 years, is regarded as one of the big three events in a season. But Liang said it was no special compared to the others.

"A player has many stops in a season. Some of them are nearly the same to me. I need to apply myself better for them," said Liang.

In the opening match of the nine-day tournament, the 15th-seeded Hawkings delivered a century break at 101 in the first frame to make a solid start, cheering the fanatic home crowds at Barbican Center. The 33-year-old English continued his good form to go 2-0 up with a break of 66.

Liang, the world number 42, grabbed one back but the nicknamed "Hawk" regained the momentum to lead 3-1 at the interval.

The 25-year-old Chinese, who progressed to York after beating Andrew Higginson 6-0 in the qualifications, fought his way back with a break of 71 and a half century to level the score. He rallied to go ahead for the first time boosted by a stunning break of 102 to lead 4-3.

However, the more experienced Englishman, in his eighth appearance at this stage, wrapped up the the game by clinching three frames in a row under the best of 11 frames.

"It's my second appearance in York. I had open chances today but failed to make good break building on it," said Liang.

For the fixtures in the rest of season, Liang said he needed to make a good plan on it to narrow the gap in the world ranking with other top players.

"That was a tough game. I think I played well the whole match really, I missed hardly anything just a couple of long balls, Liang played really well," said the winner, who cruised to the last-16 for the first time since 2007.

"I've probably got a bit more confidence at the minute and that's what helps under the pressure, it's a massive part of it. I'm delighted to win," Hawkings added.

Less than one month ago, the new International Championship was held in China. Both Championships have the same top prize of 125,000 pounds. But Hawkings said the home competitions still meant a lot to him.

He said: "I've grown up watching this on TV and I'd probably put it at number two behind the World Championship so now I'm just looking forward to coming back on Tuesday."