Stephen Maguire falls to Marco Fu

SCOTLAND'S Stephen Maguire couldn't join compatriot Graeme Dott in the quarter-finals of the Ladbrokes Mobile Masters last night as world No 18 Marco Fu pulled off a minor upset to win 6-4.

Fu knocked in successive breaks of 109 and 117 either side of the mid-session interval as he surged into a 5-1 lead, but a 74 followed by a 142 - an early pace-setter for the high break prize - brought Maguire back to just one frame behind.

The tenth frame saw Fu break off for the second frame in succession, an uncharacteristic error by referee Jan Verhaas, and the Hong Kong player prevailed after a marathon frame lasting over 45 minutes to set up a second-round clash with Peter Ebdon.

Earlier, Ronnie O'Sullivan suffered a first-round exit at as Mark Allen battled to a 6-4 win at Wembley Arena.

Allen had dominated the early exchanges, leading 3-1 at the mid-session interval but an out-of-sorts O'Sullivan, currently down at No 9 in the world rankings, fought his way back to 4-4.

The Northern Ireland potter recovered his poise, though, and came through to set up a clash with either Stephen Hendry or world champion Neil Robertson, who meet today.

O'Sullivan said: "It was a tough match, all credit to Mark. He's had a great season,"