REIGNING world champion Kyren Wilson sailed into the last 16 of the UK Championship with a 6-0 victory against Stephen Maguire at York Barbican.

Neither player exhibited their best snooker on table one, with a luckless Maguire, the 2004 champion, branding his efforts as “garbage” and “one of the worst performances ever.”

Such were both players’ struggles, Wilson’s break of 71 in the fifth frame was the first half-century of the match.

He then took the sixth with relative ease thanks to a run of 86, to avoid adding his name to the list of eliminated top 16 players, with reigning champion Ronnie O’Sullivan and fifth seed Mark Selby among those to have bowed out over the weekend.

Wilson, ranked second in the world, will now face either 15th seed Chris Wakelin or former UK quarter-finalist Matthew Selt.

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“It was a strange match,” Wilson told the BBC. “I think early doors, both of us were going into the pack and not really landing a ball and having to play safe.

“For me, the table was so difficult to judge. I don’t know if that’s what was wrong with Stephen today, obviously he didn’t allude to that, but I thought that everything was just shifting to the right. If you were playing it slow, everything was just drifting to the right.

“When you have to start hitting the ball a bit harder on these tables the pockets are just so unforgiving that it makes the game harder. I just had to stay composed.

“I felt amazing in my game, but it wasn’t quite clicking today. It is what it is.”

Wilson suffered from a bad headache throughout the match.Wilson suffered from a bad headache throughout the match. (Image: PA) Wilson was suffering from a bad headache throughout the match explaining: “I actually had it in the comms box yesterday, my brother had to run me in some painkillers.

“I woke up with it again today and going out for the first frame, there’s so much intensity, your heart’s racing and the lights are so different and it’s quite warm, I just felt as though my head was going to explode. I had to get out of there and take some more painkillers.

“But touch wood, it’s not too bad now.”

It was a frustrating afternoon for Maguire.It was a frustrating afternoon for Maguire. (Image: PA) A clearly dejected Maguire, who potted just 32 balls, lamented: “Rubbish, there’s nothing more I can say, just garbage.

“It’s a hard one to take but what can you do, you just go home and see what the next day brings.

“You can’t explain that - it was just one of the worst performances ever. I’m struggling to believe how bad.”