World Open 2024: Luca Brecel knocked out by Stephen Maguire, Ding Junhui dominates Cao Yupeng to advance in China

An out-of-sorts Luca Brecel was knocked out of the World Open by Stephen Maguire, who completed a comfortable 5-1 victory to set up a last-16 clash with either Robbie Williams or Barry Hawkins.

The Scotsman made three 50-plus breaks to claim the scalp of the world champion, who was made to pay for a raft of errors at the tournament in Yushan, China.

Brecel will be hoping to brush off this setback quickly with the defence of his World Championship fast approaching.

As for Maguire, he will be buoyed by his performance as he looks to rediscover his best form.

Breaks of 84 and 51 helped him race into a 2-0 lead over Brecel, although his opponent hit back in the next with a 77 to halve the deficit.

The Belgian Bullet then looked set to level the contest going in at the interval but a careless positional shot and subsequent safety effort left the Scotsman with a chance to respond and he took it to lead 3-1.

Brecel had another chance in the fifth frame but again couldn’t make it count. After a simple opener, Maguire took full advantage to move within one frame of victory.

Both had multiple opportunities in a scrappy sixth, but it was Maguire who eventually took it, a brilliant long red capping off a solid performance.

On the other table, a ruthless Ding Junhui was in devastating form, making three centuries in a 5-1 win over Cao Yupeng.

Breaks of 119 and 110 gave the home favourite a 2-0 lead and he backed that up with a 71 in the third before taking a 4-0 into the mid-session interval.

Cao got on the board to make it 4-1 after the break but Ding secured the win in style with a break of 100.

He will face the winner of the match between Joe Perry and Shaun Murphy in the next round.