Maguire sneaks through

Stephen Maguire defeated Joe Swail to get the defence of his Malta Cup title underway in Portsomaso today but admitted he had almost thrown the match away.

Maguire, who beat Jimmy White 9-3 in last year’s final, looked certain to wrap up a 5-3 victory when he needed just the blue to claim the eighth frame.

But the 23-year-old Scot missed and Northern Ireland number one Swail cleared to the black to force a decider.

It proved to be an edgy final frame before reigning UK champion Maguire eventually potted the last red from distance and cleared to the blue to edge through a relieved 5-4 winner.

“I’ve handed Joe a match in the world championship before and it looked like I was going to do the same here,” said Maguire, beaten 10-9 by Swail from 9-6 up in the world qualifiers five years ago.

“After all the years I’ve been playing the game I should have learned that the ball that’s important is the one you need to win.

“But I got down and went for the blue without thinking about it and it nearly cost me the match. To get through is a massive result for me.”

Maguire’s fellow Scot Stephen Hendry had no such worries as he booked his last 16 place with a 5-1 victory over Kent’s Barry Hawkins.

The pair met at the same stage of the UK Championship where Hawkins sprung a surprise 9-7 victory.

But Hendry, beaten 9-8 by Ronnie O’Sullivan in the Welsh Open final last week, won four frames on the colours on the way to setting up a second round clash with Nottingham’s Anthony Hamilton.

Hendry cleared with 61 to pinch the opening frame and added the second before Hawkins reduced his arrears to 2-1 with a run of 106.

A fluked green helped Hendry make it 3-1 before a 46 clearance gave him the fifth and a green to pink clearance a frame later completed victory.

“It was a weird game because I played three great frames and in between it was a bit scrappy,” said Hendry, who won the European Open in Malta in December 2001.

Mike Dunn, the world number 58 from Redcar, reached the last 16 of a ranking for the first time by whitewashing David Gray, the UK Championship runner-up, 5-0.

Dunn, who made a highest break of 106, faces Welshman Matthew Stevens for a place in the quarter-finals.