Judd Trump in trouble against McGill in world championship first round

Last year’s World Snooker Championship runner-up Judd Trump left himself with serious work to do after going 6-3 down against Scotland’s Anthony McGill at the Crucible on Tuesday afternoon.

Trump led 2-0 and 3-2 against the world No 21 but McGill rattled off the final four frames of the session to threaten an upset against the 2019 world champion. The pair resume their contest on Wednesday afternoon.

Meanwhile John Higgins was pleased with his performance after thumping David Grace 10-3 to reach the second round at the Crucible for the 25th time. The four-time world champion began Tuesday’s afternoon session with a commanding 7-2 lead and needed just an hour to book his place in the last 16, where he will meet either Kyren Wilson or Ryan Day.

Higgins said: “Coming into today it would have taken a bit of a collapse from me not to get over the line. But I was pleased with the way I was hitting the ball today. I’m feeling good about scoring. If I get my chance I feel as if I can go on and do some breaks here, which I think you always need to do here.”

Grace paid tribute to Higgins, saying: “He’s one of the all-time greats, full stop. He was just hitting it so nicely. He was getting the white to talk, basically. He was getting it to wherever he wanted it. That’s the sign that you’re hitting it well.”In the morning session, Jack Lisowski took a 6-3 lead against Noppon Saengkham as play resumed on table one following Monday’s ‘Just Stop Oil’ protest which saw orange powder tipped over the cloth.

Gary Wilson raced into a 7-2 lead against Elliot Slessor on the other table, and the pair will return to complete their match on Tuesday evening.