Judd Trump starts Six Red World Championship with whitewash win, defending champion Stephen Maguire crashes out

Masters champion Judd Trump launched his Six Red World Championship campaign in style on Monday with a 5-0 whitewash of Ricky Walden in Bangkok. The 2019 world champion with 15 reds showed he means business at the shorter format as he bids to claim the £100,000 first prize at the Thammasat University Convention Centre in Pathum Thani. Ad He tops Group D after the opening day of the elite invitational event with Chinese teenager Ma Hailong completing a 5-3 win against local player Kritsanut Lertsattayatthorn in the other match in the section.

Snooker'In it goes' — Vafaei pots lovely pink against Higgins5 HOURS AGO Trump has one eye on chasing a second world title in Sheffield next month and admits there is a lot of unpredictability in the sport this season. «The standard is incredibly tough. I think this season more than ever,» he told World Snooker Tour.

«It's probably been the widest open season. I know we say that all the time going into the World Championship, but this one really is. »There's been a lot of first-time winners and a lot of people you wouldn't expect to be in the top-eight events.

It's a bit of carnage going on in the rankings at the moment and that makes for a more interesting end to the season." Iran's former Shoot Out winner Hossein Vafaei made a strong start to the event with a 5-1 win against 2019 finalist John Higgins 5-1 to lead Group C after earlier beating Poramin Danjirakul 5-2. Defending champion Stephen Maguire – an 8-6 winner against fellow Scot Higgins four years ago – is out of the event in the group stage after a 5-2 loss to Ding Junhui in his Group A opener was followed by defeat to Zhang Anda by the same scoreline. Ding and Zhang both completed 5-2 wins over former women's world