Shaun Murphy, Ding Junhui, John Higgins and Barry Hawkins lose German Masters snooker qualifiers as shocks continue

Updated 27/11/2022 at 11:20 GMT

The shocks continued at the German Masters qualifiers as Shaun Murphy, Ding Junhui, John Higgins and Barry Hawkins all suffered defeats on Saturday. They joined Judd Trump, Mark Selby, Mark Allen and Mark Williams in making premature exits. The last 32 qualify for the finals venue at the Tempodrom in Berlin between February 1-5, 2023, live on discovery+ and Eurosport.

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Shaun Murphy, Ding Junhui, John Higgins and Barry Hawkins became the latest leading names to exit the German Masters at the qualifying stage in Leicester.

Murphy lost 5-2 to former European Masters champion Fan Zhengyi, while Ding was edged out 5-4 by Matthew Stevens after levelling at 4-4 from 4-1 behind on Saturday morning.

In the afternoon matches, four-time world champion John Higgins went down 5-3 to Daniel Wells before world No. 13 Barry Hawkins was eliminated 5-3 by Li Hang in the evening session with Li winning the final three frames.

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Judd Trump, Mark Williams, Mark Allen, Mark Selby, Stuart Bingham and Ryan Day all suffered unexpected defeats in the qualifiers at the Morningside Arena.

Of the world's top 16 players, only defending champion Zhao Xintong, Neil Robertson, Kyren Wilson, Jack Lisowski, Luca Brecel and Yan Bingtao will make the journey to Berlin in February. Robertson is the only figure inside the world's top seven still in the tournament.

World champion Ronnie O'Sullivan withdrew from the season's 10th ranking event with his replacement, Ross Muir of Scotland, progressing to the last 32.

The 2005 world champion Murphy opened with a break of 84 and led 2-1, but lost four straight frames as Fan booked a meeting with Xiao Guodong in the last 32.

"Absolutely devastated not to have qualified for the German Masters in Berlin," Murphy said. "It’s a great event with amazing fans that means so much to me for so many reasons.

"Tried my absolute best but good luck to Fan, he deserved the win."

Stevens will also make the trip to Germany courtesy of victory against Ding in a high-quality encounter.

Ding opened with a break of 62 before losing the next four frames as former UK and Masters champion Stevens rolled in breaks of 74, 66 and 57 with some vintage form.

But the match was far from finished as Ding found the scoring prowess that carried him to last week's UK Championship final with knocks of 59, 72 and 119 forcing a deciding frame won by Stevens on the final red as his opponent chased a snooker.

The Welshman will meet Luca Brecel in February after the Belgian player's 5-2 win against world No. 88 Barry Pinches.

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Pinches compiled a 103 break in the third frame to trail 2-1, but efforts of 90, 80 and 63 paved the way for Brecel to progress after his opponent had closed to 3-2 behind.

Higgins has yet to make it beyond the last 32 of a ranking event this season as Wells made breaks of 76 and 63 in the final three frames to seal the win having trailed 2-1 to lead 4-2.

The last 32 qualify for the Tempodrom in Berlin between February 1-5, 2023, live on discovery+ and Eurosport.