World Snooker Championship: Judd Trump stunned by qualifier Rory McLeod
Thursday 20 April 2017 16:55, UK
World No 2 Judd Trump was dumped out of the Betfred World Snooker Championship at the first hurdle on Wednesday.
The 27-year-old Englishman was beaten 10-8 by qualifier Rory McLeod, in what was one of the biggest shocks in Crucible history.
The match concluded on Wednesday evening, when the pair returned to the table with McLeod leading 9-7. The contest had to be extended into a third session, after it failed to finish on schedule earlier in the day.
Trump, runner-up in 2011, failed to find his rhythm against the world No 54 and was guilty of some poor positional play and wild potting attempts.
After the defeat, Trump refused to do a post-match press conference.
McLeod, priced at 1,000/1 to win the title by some bookmakers at the start of the tournament, will now face Stephen Maguire in the second round.
Meanwhile, former champion Graeme Dott sealed his place in the second round after beating two-time finalist Ali Carter 10-7.
Carter, trailing 6-3 overnight at the Crucible, began the session well with a break of 111 but Dott, who won the competition in 2006, hit back immediately with a run of 74.
The pair shared the next two frames, which were nervy affairs, before a 104 from Carter again reduced the deficit to two.
Scotsman Dott, ranked 19 places below world No 10 Carter, was not scoring as highly as his opponent but he successfully held off any comeback attempts to progress with a gritty performance.
I'm not the best at anything but I'm pretty good at everything and over the long games, that's all you need to be.
Defeat for Carter was the first time he had failed to make the second round in 11 years, with Dott confirming he had to dig in for the victory.
"I'm just happy to be here because you're not getting any younger," said Dott. "I certainly tried to attack the ball as best I could, when it was necessary.
"I think you've got to do that here, you're playing the best players in the world, you can't go into your shell and just try and tippy-tippy about, it doesn't work.
"I'm not the best at anything but I'm pretty good at everything and over the long games that's all you need to be. I'm relatively steady all the way through so as long as I can play like that, I'm hard to beat."
