Scot ‘over the moon’ with brilliant victory

Anthony McGill ranked his ManBetX Welsh Open triumph over world No 3 Mark Williams as one of the best wins of his career.

The Glasgow potter toppled Williams 4-1 at Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena, booking a place in the fourth round along with John Higgins and Stephen Maguire.

The world No 37 raced into a 1-0 lead before being pegged back, but showed experience beyond his years to win the next three frames and move into the last 16.

The 29-year-old, who has had a difficult season on the circuit, could not hide his elation at beating the three-time world champion. He said: “It was a brilliant win – one of the best I’ve had, so I’m over the moon.

“It’s important to win. I’ve been looking at the rankings and realised if I don’t get my act together I could be off the tour, which I don’t want to happen. It’s not that I wasn’t practising last year, it was more I just wasn’t really bothered about winning and losing.

“I’m more bothered about it now. I see other players doing well and I don’t think they’re as good as me, and I think if I knuckle down I can do better than what I’m doing.

“It’s not that I’m better than them, it’s just that bar a few players I’ve not seen anything I can’t do.”

Wishaw’s John Higgins also progressed, beating China’s Xiao Guodong 4-2 after breaks of 116, 90 and 81. The four-time world champion trailed early on, but soon found his fluency to book a last-16 clash with Belgium’s Luca Brecel.

Glaswegian Stephen Maguire was another Scot to enjoy third-round success, edging past Robert Milkins in a sevenframe thriller.

Milkins initially led 2-0, before breaks of 128, 50 and 59 from the world No 15 and a sixth-frame 86 from Milkins teed up a nerve-jangling finale. However, Maguire held his nerve to line up a fourthround match against world No 1 and reigning world champion Judd Trump.

Watch the Welsh Open live on Eurosport and Eurosport Player with analysis from Jimmy White and Neal Foulds.

Scot Anthony McGill defeated Mark Williams