Title holder Judd Trump happy to play on a 'proper table' during hard-fought opening UK Championship win

World number one Trump - who has not won an event on the professional circuit since claiming his second UK crown last December - will face Si Jiahui in the last 16 after the Chinese youngster whitewashed Ryan Day 6-0 on the other table.

The opening session of the televised stages at the Barbican Centre in York, Trump settled down with breaks of 62 and 100 as he established a 2-0 lead. 2004 winner Maguire - one of the 16 qualifiers who made it through to the main draw - got on the board with an 86, but it was the current title holder who went into the mid-session interval 3-1 up.

On resumption, Scotland's Maguire registered runs of 111 and 82 in back-to-back frames to level up proceedings before a bizarre seventh frame that saw Trump annoyed by a spectator repeatedly sneezing whilst on his shot, and Maguire missing an attempted pot by a huge distance - presumably to do with a slate line on the table which altered the direction of the cueball.

Trump recomposed himself and deposited the frame to retake the lead, and having forced a re-spotted black in frame eight, he sank the additional ball after Maguire missed a very tricky thin cut on it into the same corner pocket.

The winner of his first ranking title in five years over the summer at the Championship League, Maguire kept his hopes alive with an 86 to reduce the gap to one, but Trump got the job done in the next following an initial run of 62.

With so many different winners on the World Snooker Tour this season and a record-breaking amount of 147s, a lot has been made over recent months about table conditions and pocket sizes. Trump previously commented on the pockets playing bigger.

Speaking in the BBC studio shortly after the match, though, Trump - who again elected to use his old cue for his latest outing - was happy with the conditions, with the exception of the bizarre incident that seemingly led to Maguire missing by so much in frame seven.

The 36-year-old said: “Table was good, pockets were very tight, actually, very tight.”

Talking to six-time world champion Steve Davis about comments he made earlier in the season about ‘bigger’ pockets being a leveller, Trump replied: “I certainly think it levels out a little bit when pockets are like that, but it’s nice to come here and have a proper table to play on. You know that if you leave someone in they might actually miss!”

Analysing Maguire’s aforementioned miss and whether the hotter temperature from the table heaters caused the slate to move slightly, Trump said: “he’s hit the slate, which I mean it shouldn’t happen at this level should it really.

“I’d imagine so because the practice tables were the same when I practiced yesterday. The tables were the same. The slate was...I kept hitting it and the ball was rolling off.”

Number 16 seed Si dismissed four-time ranking event winner Day in speedy fashion with breaks of 61, 80 and 68.

To view the full draw, results, match schedule, and other information from the 2025 UK Championship, visit here.