Chinese Rising Star Liang No Match for Higgins

John Higgins qualified for the quarter- finals of the Northern Ireland Trophy by beating Liang Wenbo, the 21-year-old Chinese who reached the Crucible quarter-finals on his debut this year, 5-1 at the Waterfront Hall, Belfast.

Although the twice world champion won the first World Series event in Jersey and reached the final of the second in Berlin there were no world ranking points at stake, and he has ruled himself out of the new world-ranking Bahrain Open, so he needs to maximize his return in Belfast. His fellow Scot Stephen Maguire trailed 4-2 to Alan McManus but carried his defence of the title into the last eight with a 5-4 victory.