O'Sullivan holds hands up

Ronnie O’Sullivan admitted he had not taken his opportunities after he suffered a 6-5 defeat by Stephen Maguire in the SAGA Insurance Masters at Wembley Conference Centre.

The defending champion found himself 3-1 down, battled back to level at 5-5, but saw his opponent pinch the decider for a 6-5 win to progress to this year’s showcase quarter-finals.

“I had my chance, but I didn’t take it,” reflected O’Sullivan.

“If you don’t take your chance you don’t expect another one, so I can’t complain.

“You try and be inspired every time you play. I don’t rely on crowds to inspire, I don’t rely on anyone to inspire me. If you can’t inspire yourself you’re not going to get very far.

“It was a decent atmosphere, but the whole point of it (the match) is to win - and I didn’t win. It’s a failure as far as I’m concerned.”

Maguire won the opening frame of the match thanks largely to a break of 56, before O’Sullivan levelled matters with a composed break of 68 after Maguire had faltered on 47.

But Glaswegian Maguire, winner of this season’s Northern Ireland Trophy, raised his game and pocketed breaks of 103 and 84 and lead 3-1 at the interval.

The provisional world number two extended his lead to 4-1 by winning the fifth frame on points 64-50, only for O’Sullivan to rally with a run of 112 to reduce his arrears.

The Rocket won the next frame with a break of 72, before Maguire edged 5-3 ahead by winning a scrappy eighth frame.

However, back came provisional world number one O’Sullivan to force a final-frame decider.

A break of 66 was enough to make it 5-4, before a break of 64 made it all square as the two heavyweights went the distance.

But O’Sullivan missed a routine final blue ball and Maguire pounced to pinch the frame just as it looked as if he was heading for an early exit.

“I think I had one fan out there,” said Maguire.

“It was a good match for the crowd, but they’ll be gutted he’s out.”

Welshman Ryan Day missed out on a maximum 147 break as he disposed of wild card Barry Hawkins.