Maguire magic earns wild card

Stephen Maguire has been rewarded for his brilliant start to the season with a wild card into next year’s Wembley Masters.

The 23-year-old Scot won the Travis Perkins UK Championship and finished runner-up to John Higgins at the British Open.

He has risen to number three on the provisional world rankings and will make his first appearance in the prestigious invitational event which features the world’s top 16 stars plus two wild cards.

Chinese youngster Ding Junhui has been given the second wild card into the £400,000 tournament, which runs from February 13-20.