UK Snooker Championship 2012: Judd Trump loses to Mark Joyce
- Published
World number 50 Mark Joyce produced a major shock by knocking world number one and holder Judd Trump out of the UK Championship in the first round.
Having been 5-2 behind, Joyce took four frames in a row to win 6-5 as Trump's game collapsed in spectacular fashion.
"I should never play that bad," said Trump. "You'll never see another world number one play as badly as that."
Former UK Championship winner Shaun Murphy comfortably defeated Robert Milkins 6-3 to go through.
Murphy soon got into his stride and went 4-2 ahead, knocking in a 91 in the process - the highest break of the match. A 64 helped Milkins pull to within a frame, but Murphy won two on the trot.
Trump started his match in blistering style, firing a 104 break to go 3-1 ahead but could not sustain that form.
He lacked focus, watching the other table's play rather than concentrating on his own match when sat in his chair.
"It's just a bad performance," the 23-year-old explained. "It was going to come sooner or later.
"He played all right in the last four frames but he'll have to raise his game a lot to get close to [round two opponent] Ali Carter."
The first three frames should all have gone Joyce's way but the pressure of playing against Trump seemed to weigh heavily.
Joyce nicked one back but Trump extended his lead again after coming out on top in a tactical exchange.
The next ended up being another bout of strategic play, with Joyce defending a 59-point lead to go 4-2 behind.
Trump moved to within a frame of victory with a break of 74 but Joyce pulled two frames back, then left Trump scoreless in the 10th to force a decider.
Both players had chances, with Trump scoring 37, but Joyce, from Walsall, knocked in a 49 to emerge victorious.
Meanwhile, last year's finalist Mark Allen was beaten 6-3 by Hong Kong's Marco Fu.
Allen, who renewed allegations of cheating against his opponent prior to the match - which have been strongly denied, struggled to get into the tie and found himself 5-1 down before a late surge added some respectability to the scoreline.
Mark Davis also progressed, thrashing China's Cao Yupeng 6-1.
After Ding Junhui lost to Ryan Day and Liang Wenbo was beaten by Barry Hawkins, Chinese interest in the tournament is now over.
Cao was outplayed by veteran Davis, who has moved into the top 16 in the world rankings, benefiting from Ronnie O'Sullivan's decision to withdraw for the season and Stephen Lee's suspension.
World Championship runner-up Ali Carter beat six-time UK champion Steve Davis 6-2 to advance, while Stuart Bingham beat 21-year-old qualifier Jack Lisowski 6-2.
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