Tag: Stephen Maguire

Ronnie crushes Maguire, reaches World Snooker Championship semis

Posted on by A Sports

SHEFFIELD: Former world champion and the current fourth-ranked cueist Ronnie O’Sullivan has outclassed his Scottish counterpart Stephen Maguire 13-5 to book his spot in the semi-finals of the ongoing World Snooker Championship.

The six-times champion Ronnie, who faced Scotland’s Maguire in the quarterfinals, defeated the latter by 13-5 in the Best of 25.

Maguire ranked 24th, started the proceedings with a first frame victory but could not continue as Ronnie responded quickly and won the next six frames to attain an early and decent lead of 6-1.

The Scottish cueist, on the other, did not hold back and bounced back by winning three consecutive frames to cut the margin to 6-4 but only for Ronnie to restore and even extend his lead to 11-4 by winning five frames in a row.

In the 16th frame of the match, Maguire showed last signs of resistance, claiming his fifth and last frame victory of the match as Ronnie then soon won the next two frames to secure a comfortable victory over Maguire 13-4.

With his victory over Maguire, Ronnie has set the world record for most semi-final appearances in World Snooker Championship (13). He also has the chance of levelling Stephen Hendry’s record of seven world titles if he can lift the trophy on Monday.

 

The English cueist will now face either John Higgins or Jack Lisowski in the semi-final of the championship.

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Maguire stuns Xintong, reaches World Snooker Championship QFs

Posted on by A Sports

SHEFFIELD: The Scottish cueist Stephen Maguire pulled off an exceptional victory as he stunned better-ranked Chinese snooker player Zhao Xintong 13-9 to proceed into the last eight of the ongoing World Snooker Championship, here on Saturday.

In the second-round fixture, Maguire, ranked 31st blunted sixth-ranked Xintong by the scores of 13-9 in the Best of 25 to become the second player to book a quarter-final berth in the ongoing tournament.

The two cueists remained involved in a see-saw battle, right from the start with Maguire pulling ahead and Xintong levels. Both the players won three of the first six frames.

Maguire then took a decent lead 6-3 as he won the next three frames, including a century in the seventh.

Xintong then won a hard-fought 10th frame by the scores of 63-61 and reduced the margin to 6-4 only for Maguire to restore and then enhance his lead to a four-frame advantage of 8-4 after sealing the next two frames.

The next four frames again followed the same pattern as Xintong managed to cut the margin by a frame but Maguire claimed the next three to move 11-5.

In the morning session, Xintong managed to make an exceptional comeback as he won four out of the next five frames to reduce the gap to 12-9.

Whereas Maguire held his nerve calm and denied Xintong’s outstanding comeback by winning his 13th frame and securing an amazing victory.

Both the cueists scored two centuries each in an exciting see-saw battle. Xintong scored the best break of match 136, which came in the fifth frame.

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