John Higgins made only the 11th maximum break in world championship history but his hopes of a fifth title were shattered by a shock 13-11 second-round defeat by Kurt Maflin.
Higgins, the runner-up for the past three years, trailed Norway’s world No 43 overnight and was 7-4 down when he fired the first 147 of his glittering Crucible career. But despite nudging 11-10 ahead, the veteran Scot was hauled back by an inspired Maflin who reeled off three consecutive frames to claim the biggest win of his career.
Maflin told Eurosport: “When I went 11-10 down I just thought: ‘It feels like I’m going here, I need to do something.’ I thought back to all the practice I’ve been doing and that’s what got me through. I went for my shots and they went in. I just gave it everything I could tonight. I started off well but he makes it so tough. He’s so hard to beat, you can never get rid of him.”
Maflin had won two consecutive frames in the morning when Higgins hit back with his sparkling maximum, the first achieved at the Sheffield venue since Stephen Hendry in 2012. It was the 10th 147 Higgins had made in his career and in the next frame he made the most of a missed red by Maflin on a 57 break to close the gap to one.
Maflin, who has lost in qualifying in 15 of the previous 16 years, responded with a break of 81 to regain his two-frame lead before Higgins finished an excellent morning session in style. He won the final two frames, the latter after his opponent could not close out a 52 break, to draw level at 8-8.
Maflin seized the initiative when play resumed in the evening, claiming two consecutive frames to move 10-8 in front, but an underhit red to the middle let in Higgins to clear with a break of 78 then take the next two frames to move ahead.
Just when it looked as if Higgins would move on to seal his place in the last eight, a simple missed brown allowed Maflin to clear and pull level again. Maflin pounced on another mistake to move within one frame of victory with a break of 80, and a break of 63 was enough to get him over the line.
The defending champion, Judd Trump, trails 5-3 after the opening session of his second-round match against China’s Yan Bingtao. The impressive Yan produced a 133 total clearance plus two more breaks above 90 to impress against the out-of-sorts Trump, who edged the final frame of the day to reduce the deficit.
The former world champions Mark Williams and Stuart Bingham will head into Friday’s concluding session locked together at 8-8, as will Mark Selby and the Thai qualifier Noppon Saengkham.