World number nine Stuart Bingham kicked off his Six Red World Championship campaign with a comfortable victory over Kamal Chawla.

The Englishman travelled to Bangkok as one of the favourites to lift the title and he made the perfect start on Monday as he dispatched India’s Chawla 5-2.

However, Bigham, who is priced at 29.00 to win the 2017 UK Championship, currently sits second in Group E behind Scotland’s Stephen Maguire, who beat home favourite Akani Songsermsawad 5-1 on the opening day of the event.

Bigham will have the opportunity to extend his winning run on Tuesday when he faces Songsermsawad before rounding off the group with a mouth-watering clash against Maguire.

Tom Ford was handed a late call to the invitational event in Thailand following the withdrawal of Luca Brecel due to visa issues, and he made the most of his opportunity by claiming a 5-2 win over world number 119 Lu Haotian of China.

Welsh duo Mark Williams and Ryan Day picked up the standout victories of the day as they demolished Iran’s Soheil Vahedi and Pakistan’s Muhammad Sajjad 5-0 respectively.

World number 22 Mark King was made to work hard for his victory over James Wattana but he eventually went on to edge a 5-4 victory over the Thai.