After a Marathon frame in Beijing on Wednesday, Shaun Murphy eliminated Dave Harold to set a tie with China's Ding Junhui at the 2008 World Snooker China Open.

Murphy fought eight frames to score a 5-3 win over Dave Harold and the eighth frame endured 93 minutes and 12 seconds, surpassing both the records for the longest televised frame and longest in snooker.

"Although the last frame was the longest, I was very pleased with how I played in the whole match. My safety play was good my potting was good and generally if both of those work you win the game," said Murphy.

The longest televised frame is 77:31 when Mark Selby played Marco Fu in the Maplin UK Championship 2007, and the longest ever frame is 92:52 when Cliff Thorburn took Stephen O'Connor in Welsh Open qualifiers 1994.

On the other table, "Rocket" Ronnie O'Sulliva continued his poor performance against Marco Fu as he crashed out with a 5-4 defeat at Fu's hands.

Early on, Mark Williams, the champion of the 2006 edition eliminated Marcus Campbell 5-1, while John Higgins defeat Joe Swail 5-4.

Campbell, who edged Chinese cueman A Bulajiang in the wildcard round, had a brilliant start by snatching the first frame with an impressive 66 clearance.

However, Williams demonstrated his "golden" left hand's accuracy and went on a five-frame roll including breaks of 110 and 101 to dump out Campbell.

"I did well in the beginning, but Williams just got better out of him, and I cannot stop him in this match," said Cambell.

"I came here five days ago, and made good preparation for this tournament. I don't want to disappoint myself again," said Williams, who was knocked out in the first round last year.

In the second round, Williams will take on former world champion Peter Ebdon, who beat Jamie Cope 5-1.

Ebdon faced little challenge of Cope and fired in breaks of 62, 63, 70, 99 and 74 to enjoy the easy win.

In other matches, Mark Allen took a convincing 5-2 win over Neil Robertson, Ali Carter saw off Stuart Bingham 5-3, while Mark Selby ousted Ricky Walden 5-2.

(Xinhua News Agency March 27, 2008)