Wuhan Open: Judd Trump overcomes cue mix-up to beat John Higgins and reach quarter-finals
Defending champion Judd Trump beat John Higgins 5-2 to reach the quarter-finals of the Wuhan Open – despite taking another player’s cue into the arena after the mid-session interval.
Leading 3-1, Trump alerted the referee as he was about to break off for the fifth frame and told Higgins that he had inadvertently picked up the wrong cue.
“My cue was in the case I think, but Ben [Woollaston] put his cue next to my case,” Trump said to the Scot as he was reunited with his own cue, with Higgins seeing the funny side of the mix-up.
World number one Trump went on to win the fifth frame to go 4-1 up and, although four-time world champion Higgins responded with a break of 126, Trump wrapped up victory to set up a meeting with either fellow Englishman Chris Wakelin, who made successive century breaks of 128, 139 and 132 to beat home favourite Ding Junhui 5-3
In an interview with the World Snooker Tour, 35-year-old Trump added: “I have never done that before. It was a bit of a shock.
“It wasn’t until I really got to the table that I noticed. I was going to break off and the cue felt strange, so I looked down and it wasn’t my cue.
“Luckily for me John was very nice about it and he just told me to wait as long as possible.
“I think it has happened before and someone got awarded the frame, but John was nice enough just to allow me enough time to get my cue back.”
Woollaston lost his last-16 match 5-3 to Long Zehuang, while Jack Lisowski beat Wu Yize 5-0 to reach the quarter-finals.
Shaun Murphy is also through to the last eight after beating last year’s runner-up Ali Carter in a final-frame decider, and will face Xiao Guodong.
Xiao, who had beaten world champion Kyren Wilson in the previous round, defeated Barry Hawkins 5-2 to progress.
Elsewhere, Si Jiahui claimed three century breaks on his way to beating Welshman Duane Jones 5-2, while Zhang Anda edged a last-frame decider to beat amateur Mark Joyce.
