Snooker ace Ross Muir overcomes '˜blurry eye' to make progress

Ross Muir had to battle for his win in Belfast

The Musselburgh player seemed in a good place leading Thor Chuan Leong 2-1 when blurriness suddenly struck in his right eye, an unfortunate blow to his momentum that didn’t leave throughout the game.

That initially knocked Muir for six but, after taking time to compose himself, he nosed his way back in front at 3-2 in Belfast.

The Malaysian forced a scrappy deciding frame lasting more than half an hour, but it was Muir who just about held on, now looking forward to facing Judd Trump or Stuart Carrington in round two.

“I felt quite good to start with, but suddenly the eye just went blurry so I had to go for a toilet break to try and get it back to normal,” he said.

“So just to get through feels great. It was pretty bad and I completely butchered some shots, but once I got over the shock I was just about to get there.

“I calmed down a little and managed to grind through, playing well wasn’t really an option – you just had to get over the line any way you could.

“There was a bit of pressure thinking how I was going to get out of it, but thankfully I did.”

Despite Belfast being a hop across the sea to Muir’s home, he still boasts plenty of support in the Waterfront Hall crowd.

Hoping they can cheer him on to a long run in the competition, the Edinburgh cueman has already made it further than his tournament debut, out in the first round 12 months ago.

He added: “I’ve got a lot of family and friends here so I want to go as far as I can.

“I’m certainly good enough to beat anyone in the tournament so I’ve just got to focus and play my game – if I do that, then the sky is the limit.”

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