Friday 5 February 2016

Maguire Ends Selby German Defence


Mark Selby’s German Masters title defence came to an early end on Thursday as he slipped to a second-round defeat against Stephen Maguire.

Maguire triumphed 5-3 in the last-16 clash in Berlin to set up a meeting with his fellow Scot Graeme Dott, who saw off world No8 Barry Hawkins by the same score.

Maguire, having come back from 3-2 down to seal his victory, said: “I fought well and closed it out well in the end.

“I’ve not been to the later stages of tournaments recently. I’ve put some hard work in and hopefully I can keep getting results.”

Judd Trump was one player ranked in the top 10 who did make the quarter finals as he defeated China’s Zhang Anda 5-1, the world No5 finishing off with three straight century breaks, including a 147 attempt that ended on 120.

Trump will take on Martin Gould, who also made short work of getting through as he beat Ben Woollaston 5-0.

Trump said: “I’ve practised a lot and it is paying off at the moment. I feel no pressure and I know I’m going to play well.

“I was confident of making the 147 because I made one on the same table last year. I just potted the [15th] black slightly too thin and the cue ball ran too far. If I can go out and play like that tomorrow I’ve got no worries.”

Earlier in the day, there were surprise first-round losses for Mark Allen and Marco Fu at the hands of Mark Joyce and Kurt Maflin respectively, but the world champion Stuart Bingham was among those to safely progress to round two, overcoming Fergal O’Brien 5-2.


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