John Higgins in amazing gesture as he lets Judd Tump off the hook after bonkers snooker cue mix up

Judd Trump was left embarrassed after picking up the WRONG CUE before continuing his hoodoo over Scottish snooker legend John Higgins at Wuhan Open.

Trump won 5-2 but a mind blank saw him go into the arena with red-faced with fellow star Ben Woolaston’s cue. World No.1 Trump has now won 11 of his last 12 meetings with Higgins which stems back to the 18-9 thrashing in the 2019 World Championship final.

Scot Stephen Maguire was famously docked a frame when he forgot his chalk in a match against Shaun Murphy. Red-faced Trump, who continued his sensational streak of reaching at least the quarter-finals in every event of 2024, said: “I’ve never done that before!

“Ben Woolaston left his cue by my case during the interval and I must have picked his up. I didn’t realise until I got to the table. It felt strange, I looked down and it wasn’t my cue. Luckily for me, John was very nice about it and let me wait as long as possible. I think it’s happened before and somebody lost the frame, but John was nice enough to give me enough time to get my cue back.”

Trump fluked the green after a lengthy safety battle in the second frame and potted a red off the safety shot in the final frame.

And the Ace in the Pack added: “I didn’t play my best. I just tried to hang in there.

“I got fortunate in one of the frames with the green and then played a safety in the final frame and potted a red. There were a couple of pivotal turning points in that game which went my way and that’s enough to swing a game.”

Meanwhile, former world champion Murphy booked his quarter-final spot with a 5-4 win over Ali Carter. Jack Lisowski whipped Wu Yize 5-0 with breaks of 68, 81, 51, 65 and 117.