German Masters snooker: Shaun Murphy sinks Mark King, John Higgins stunned by Noppon Saengkham, Mark Allen progress

ByEurosport

Updated 24/10/2021 at 07:02 GMT

Shaun Murphy lost the first frame before reeling off the next five to complete a 5-1 victory over Mark King with breaks of 61, 100, 76 and 93 helping the world number seven progress. The last 32 qualify for the final stages, with the Tempodrom in Berlin staging the tournament between 26-30 January 2022, which you can stream live and on demand on discovery+, the Eurosport app and eurosport.com.

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Shaun Murphy completed a 5-1 win against Mark King to make a winning start to his German Masters campaign in the first round of qualifying in Cannock on Saturday morning, but John Higgins and Jack Lisowski will not be heading for Berlin's Tempodrom.

King produced a break of 74 to deny Murphy's opening effort of 61, but it was largely one-way traffic from that point onwards as the 2005 world champion rolled in 100, 76 and 93 on his way to reeling off five straight frames.

Murphy – a three-times semi-finalist at the event – will face fellow former Scottish Open finalist Cao Yupeng on Sunday after his 5-3 win over Robbie Williams in the quest to seal a trip to Germany in January with 32 qualifiers appearing at the final venue.

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Later on Saturday, Higgins would lose 5-2 to Noppon Saengkham in a major upset in the first round with last year's beaten finalist Lisowski going down 5-3 to Liam Highfield in the second round.

Higgins put together runs of 50 and 138 to lead 2-1 but world number 40 Saengkham – having won the second frame with a break of 105 – would win frames four, five, six and seven on the back of runs of 132, 78 and 79 to knock out the four-times world champion less than a week after his 9-8 defeat to Mark Allen in the Northern Ireland Open final.

Lisowski – who lost 9-2 to Judd Trump in the German Masters final last season – trailed 3-0 and 4-1 to Highfield. Despite contributing breaks of 104, 60 and 61 to close to 4-3 behind, world number 44 Highfield prevented a decider by edging a taut eighth frame after earlier compiling three plus 50 breaks to secure a memorable triumph.

Allen enjoyed better fortune as he ousted Sunny Akani 5-3 in the second qualifying round to reach Berlin a day after his 5-1 victory over Alfie Burden in the first round when he almost lost a frame due to forgetting his cue.

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The Northern Irishman looked like he may go the same way as Higgins as the Thai player opened with runs of 83 and 78 to lead 2-0, but the Antrim man rallied strongly to level at 2-2 with contributions of 95 and a wonderful 133.

The pair split the next two frames with Allen nosing 3-2 clear before the former Masters holder finished with breaks of 73 and 72 to complete his mission for the week.

2013 German Masters winner Ali Carter won the first frame against Lyu Haotian before losing the next five to tumble out in a disappointing 5-1 loss in the last 64.

The 2017 Northern Ireland semi-finalist finished with 52, 89, 52 and 80 to round off a comfortable win.

Six-times world finalist Jimmy White led Ryan Day 4-2 after trailing 2-0, but the Shoot Out champion claimed the final three frames to secure a meeting with Jamie Clarke in the second round.

Clarke suffered the slight ignominy of winning a marathon fourth frame against 1995 Crucible finalist Nigel Bond in a 5-2 victory. The pair clocked up a frame lasting an astonishing 1hr, 39min and 40sec, the fourth longest on the professional tour in the past five years.

Fergal O'Brien and David Gilbert continue to hold the all-time record for their seismic effort of 2hr, three min and 41sec during the final frame of O'Brien's 10-9 win over Gilbert in qualifying for the World Championship in 2017.

The last 32 qualify for the final stages of the German Masters, with the Tempodrom in Berlin staging the tournament between 26-30 January 2022, which you can stream live and on demand on discovery+, the Eurosport app and eurosport.com.