Snooker news - John Higgins starts Welsh Open defence with win, Maguire and Day crash out
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ByEurosport
Updated 12/02/2019 at 07:50 GMT
John Higgins powered through to the second round of the Welsh Open with a 4-0 whitewash against Graeme Dott in Cardiff, while other big names crashed out.
John Higgins.
Image credit: PA Sport
The four-times world champion did not give his fellow Scotsman a look in as he coasted through the opening-round match in comprehensive fashion.
Higgins produced breaks of 86, 51 and 65 to secure the opening two frames, and scores of 84 and 98 were enough to round off the win.
The best Dott could do was hit back with 50 in the third frame, but he only mustered 14 other points in the entire match as he suffered a convincing defeat.
It was not a good day for fellow Scot and former UK champion Stephen Maguire as he lost 4-3 to Zhou Yuelong in a scrappy affair.
Zhou produced breaks of 54, 53, 55, 69 and 62 as he kept Maguire under the cosh, and he could not produce the goods.
Judd Trump continued his winning streak after beating Ali Carter 10-6 on Sunday night to win the World Grand Prix in Cheltenham.
Trump made runs of 85 and 84 in a 4-0 win over Harvey Chandler to secure a meeting with Xiao Guodong or Duane Jones in the last 64..
World champion Mark Williams was forced to dig deep to produce a 4-3 win over world number 122 Kishan H Hirani.
Hirani compiled a 122 break for a 2-1 lead after Williams had opened with a 76 break.
Williams - who won the Welsh Open in 1996 and 1999 - ran in 66 and 80 to lead 3-2, but was forced to scramble over the line in the decider.
He will face Martin Gould or Zhang Anda in the last 64.
Home favourite Ryan Day also suffered a 4-3 defeat as Thepchaiya Un-Nooh triumphed in their opening match.
Day began the match confidently with breaks of 52 and 69 giving him a two-frame lead, but he was quickly pegged back and went on to lose.
Former Masters holder Mark Allen was a 4-2 winner over Mark Joyce despite admitting he is struggling with his game.
MONDAY FEBRUARY 11
First round results (best of seven frames)
- John Higgins 4-0 Graeme Dott
- Li Yuan 2-4 Dominic Dale
- Soheil Vahedi 4-0 Chen Feilong
- Alfie Burden 2-4 Craig Steadman
- Jack Lisowski 4-3 Niu Zhuang
- Tian Pengfei 1-4 Marco Fu
- Sean O'Sullivan 1-4 Ken Doherty
- Sam Craigie 4-0 Mark King
- Chris Wakelin 3-4 Hammad Miah
- Jak Jones 4-2 Matthew Stevens
- Michael White 2-4 Peter Lines
- Judd Trump 4-0 Harvey Chandler
- Robbie Williams 4-0 Rod Lawler
- Anthony Hamilton 4-0 Sam Baird
- Jamie Clarke 2-4 Matthew Selt
- Martin O'Donnell 4-0 Hamza Akbar
- Stephen Maguire 3-4 Zhou Yuelong
- Zhang Jiankang 4-3 Fan Zhengyi
- Alexander Ursenbacher 4-2 Yan Bingtao
- Allan Taylor 0-4 Yuan SiJun
- Adam Duffy 4-2 Zhang Yong
- Eden Sharav 2-4 Xu Si
- Stuart Carrington 3-4 Noppon Saengkham
- Ryan Day 3-4 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
- Lukas Kleckers 4-0 Peter Ebdon
- Ashley Hugill v 3-4 Hossein Vafaei
- Shaun Murphy 4-1 Adam Stefanow
- Liam Highfield 3-4 Liang Wenbo
- Mark Allen 4-2 Mark Joyce
- Mark Williams 4-3 Kishan H Hirani
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