Fu focus on ranking points

Marco Fu is one player who will not be thinking about the Crucible during this week’s Players Championship.

The Hong Kong star reached the second round of the Scottish event with a 5-1 defeat of Scott MacKenzie at the SECC in Glasgow.

Many of snooker’s top stars are focussing on the 17-day Embassy World Championship marathon, which gets under way in less than a fortnight’s time.

But Fu was beaten in the qualifiers last month and the Glasgow tournament is his last of the campaign.

Fu began the event 13th in the provisional rankings and requires an extended run to stand a chance of rejoining the elite top 16 when the rankings receive their official revision at the end of the season.

He said: “I was nervous because there is so much at stake. I need ranking points and want to keep the season going.

“If I can get a good run here it will go some way to making up for not qualifying for the Crucible.”

MacKenzie, the world number 259, won four matches at the qualifiers to earn the right to appear at the final stages of a ranking event for the first time.

But he mustered a highest break of only 43 as Fu fired in runs of 60, 51, 67, 49, 44 and 46.

Gerard Greene, a quarter-finalist in the British Open earlier this season, was full of apologies after beating Edinburgh’s Chris Small 5-2.

Greene described the match as “a shambles”, adding: “It was the worst match I’ve ever been involved in. I feel like giving the audience their money back.”

The Kent-based Northern Irishman made the highest break of the match, just 44, while Small’s best effort was only 38.

Preston’s Ian McCulloch defeated 1995 Crucible runner-up Nigel Bond 5-4 to advance to a second round meeting with David Gray, who won the title last year when it was called the Scottish Open.