Maguire first into final

Scotland’s Stephen Maguire is the first player through to this year’s Maplin UK Championship final after he beat former world champion Shaun Murphy.

The Glasgow professional gave himself a commanding 7-1 lead after the afternoon session of their best-of-17 frame clash at the Telford International Centre.

And although Rotherham’s Murphy, the provisional world number one, hit back to win four frames from the evening session, it was Maguire who progressed with a deserved 9-5 victory at this year’s £590,400 tournament.

“You come back from 7-1 once in a lifetime, all I had to do was plod away and wait for my chances,” reflected Maguire, who will now play either crowd favourite Ronnie O’Sullivan or last season’s World Championship runner-up Mark Selby in this year’s final.

“I knew I had to play strong. I’ve said all week that I’d have to improve to beat top players and he’s provisionally number one, so you don’t get any tougher than that.

“The crowd were behind him because he was the underdog, but fair play to them because even when I was clearing up at the end they seemed to enjoy themselves.”

This year’s winner will pocket £100,000 and the runner-up £46,000 worth of prize money.

However, with the greatest respect to Selby, Maguire would love to lock horns with ’The Rocket’ in this year’s showcase.

“If it is Ronnie I hope he plays his best because it’s the biggest test for me this week,” added Maguire.

“He’s played the best this week. I’d like to play Ronnie in the final.”

Maguire, winner of the Northern Ireland Trophy last month in Belfast, opened with a 69 break, before Murphy hit back to level with runs of 43 and 86.

However, from there on it was world number 10 Maguire, a UK winner last in 2004, who powered ahead.

The on-song Scot pocketed breaks of 61 and 41 for a 2-1 lead, before sinking special centuries – 106 and 101 – to establish a three-frame cushion.

That lead became four frames thanks to a break of 77, before runs of 46 and 54 saw Maguire leave himself needing two frames for a place in his second UK final.

Murphy started well in the concluding session and pocketed a tournament high break of 144 to reduce his arrears.

His composed total clearance will give him an additional £5,000 in prize-money if it is not bettered during the next two days.

The adopted Yorkshireman won the next frame on points 63-13, but Maguire edged within one frame of the victory line with a solid break of 70 in the 11th frame.

A break of 67 saw Murphy force a mid-session interval and he won the first after the resumption with a break of 84, but victory was just around the corner as a break of 105 – his third century of the match – secured victory.

“I gave him too much of a lead and you can’t give players like Stephen too much of a head start,” said Murphy.

“I don’t really feel as though I didn’t anything dramatically wrong (in the opening session), he just played so well and I struggled to play with him.”