SNOOKER: Zak Surety stunned Stephen Maguire in the first round of the Scottish Open and the world number eight admitted the Basildon star was just too hot to handle.

Surety, ranked over 100 places below the six-time ranking event winner, toppled Maguire 4-1 in Milton Keynes to advance to the second round of a major tournament for just the third time in his career.

Surety reached the last 64 of last month’s Northern Ireland Open and a rock-solid performance against Maguire secured a result to remember in the third Home Nations event of the season.

Furious Maguire, the former world number two, has endured a miserable start to the campaign and reckons underdog Surety was simply too good at the Marshall Arena.

“He played too good – far too good,” fumed the 39-year-old, who was technically playing in his home tournament despite it being moved 300 miles south of Glasgow to Milton Keynes.

“I didn’t get going and he deserved his win. I thought he put me under pressure, I couldn’t get amongst the balls and he played five good frames. Fair play, and I hope he does well in the tournament.

“I’ve just had enough – I’ll enjoy Christmas, forget about it, and it’s not a big deal. I’ll come back and refresh next year.”

Surety, 29, slipped to first round defeats at the European Masters and English Open but a brilliant first round win over Mark King kickstarted his season last month.

He went down 6-2 against Basildon rival Stuart Bingham in the first round of the UK Championship – 2015 world champion Bingham struck a magical 147 – but was back with a bang at the Scottish Open against the decorated Maguire.

Surety pinched a scrappy first frame to take the lead before Maguire, UK champion in 2004, composed a visit of 57 to haul himself level.

But then Surety found some of his most fluent potting to reel off three frames on the spin and catapult him into the second round.

There he will face either Gao Yang or Duane Jones – who were set to do battle on Monday afternoon – as he bids to reach the third round of a ranking event for the first time in his career.

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