Snooker ace bows out in Germany

Mark King insists he is set up for a strong finish to the season despite exiting the German Masters in Berlin at the second-round stage last night.

King recorded an impressive victory over Barry Hawkins in round one, but couldn’t repeat the trick as he went down 5-2 to in-form world No.12 Stephen Maguire.

The Romford potter could only watch on as his Scottish opponent made two centuries in the opening three frames before posting contributions of 73 and 74 to seal victory.

The 40-year-old King acknowledged that he had no answer for the snooker Maguire was producing, but believes the tournament as a whole produced more positives than negatives for him.

“I’m happy with the first game in this tournament and then against Stephen was just one of those nights when he played some good stuff,” said King.

“He was the better player on the day and deserved to win. I’ll have a few days off now and then it will be back to the table for the China Open and Indian Open qualifiers.

“It’s a massive period coming up and I’m just looking to build on this and keep going.

“I’m feeling in a good place for the last few months of the season – I’ll keep practising and I’m not going to come up against too many players performing as well as that, so good luck to him.”

Against Maguire, King had an opportunity to record the first maximum break of his career in frame seven, but missed a tricky red on the cushion with the rest to break down on 72.

The Scot went on to make a 73 clearance, snatching the frame and match, and world No.33 King claims that sequence perfectly encapsulates the match as a whole.

“I was gutted to lose but, to be honest, when he was in amongst it, he didn’t really miss a ball,” added King.

“Things just weren’t going my way and even in the last frame I was on a maximum, but missed a tough red tight on the cushion and he cleared up.

“Maybe I could have gone for a longer red, but I fancied the one with the rest, although I got nowhere near it in the end.

“I haven’t got any complaints really – that is just the way it goes and he played well. He didn’t miss anything and when you’re up against someone like that, it’s tough to beat them.”

*British Eurosport is the Home of Snooker, showing 19 tournaments per season including the World Championship, UK Championship the Masters and all other ranking events. Available on Sky, Virgin Media & BT TV or online/mobile via eurosportplayer.com.