John Higgins: First whitewash defeat in 16 years
Stephen Maguire inflicted a first whitewash defeat on world champion John Higgins for 16 years in their all-Scottish second round clash at the German Masters.
Higgins' highest break was just 33 as he was beaten 5-0 for the first time since Karl Burrows routed him in the 1996 Asian Classic.Maguire took a tense opener and went 3-0 up with breaks of 74 and 89 before Higgins failed to get the snookers required in the next, going into the break 4-0 down.Maguire was in first with 52 after the resumption and potted two impressive middle-pocket reds before eventually getting over the line.He will face a quarter-final against Judd Trump, who beat Mark Allen 5-2 in a rematch of the UK Championship final.HeroicsTrump led 2-0 and, though Allen halved the deficit, the Bristolian surged 3-1 ahead despite missing out on a century.He went 4-1 up before Allen responded again but Trump came from 47-26 down to take frame seven and the match.Shaun Murphy also reached the quarter-finals with a 5-2 win over Ricky Walden.Murphy came from 43-5 down to take the opener and added a 128 to move 2-0 up. It was 4-0 at the interval after Walden's comeback in frame four came up short.Walden took the first frame back in quick time and then made it 4-2, but a seemingly never-ending seventh frame went Murphy's way and he progressed to face Mark Selby or Graeme Dott.The remaining second round clash on Thursday saw Stephen Lee overcome Chinese rookie Yu Delu 5-3.Yu caused a major upset by knocking out fellow countryman Ding Junhui earlier in the day but could not repeat his heroics against in-form Lee.Read more https://www1.skysports.com/snooker/news/12243/7475729/