Maguire tipped for glory

Anthony Hamilton today tipped Stephen Maguire to lift his first 888.com World Championship after falling victim to the in-form Scot for the second year in succession.

Hamilton was beaten 10-3 by Maguire in the final first-round match at the Crucible last night, but knew well before then the writing was on the wall.

“He has a great chance of winning the world title this year and I found that out in the first half an hour,” said Hamilton, who found himself 8-0 down an in danger of suffering only the second Crucible whitewash.

Maguire beat Hamilton in the quarter-finals 12 months ago and admitted he felt the title was in the bag when he led eventual champion John Higgins 14-10 in the semi-final.

“No disrespect to Mark Selby or Shaun Murphy, but I thought the winner of my match with John would win it and I should have been in the final,” said the 27-year-old from Glasgow. “But from 14-10 up John put me under extreme pressure and I never handled it.

“It’s nice of Anthony to say that about me, he’s been unlucky really. I’ve played him twice and been near the top of my game both times. If I play like that someone is going to have to play very well to beat me, and if that happens then good luck to them.”

Maguire was pleased to have such a comfortable win, but was livid at squandering a great chance for a maximum 147 break in the 12th frame, missing a tough final red.

The Scot stormed out of the arena in frustration and joked: “I think I broke a tile in the toilet. My hand just ’slipped’ and I heard a crack and didn’t look back.

“I was just gutted with myself that I never went full out for position on the last red. I was scared if I got into the white too much I wouldn’t even get a shot at the red because it only went in the green pocket.

“I just got none of the white and left myself a red I would have potted if it wasn’t for a maximum, but I just twitched.”

In the other half of the draw, Ronnie O’Sullivan beat Chinese teenager Liu Chuang 10-5 but afterwards admitted he has struggled to cope with the furore surrounding the lewd comments and sexual innuendoes he made during a news conference in China.

And the 32-year-old volunteered to withdraw from tournaments if anyone has been offended by his antics following his loss to Marco Fu in the China Open in Beijing last month, when he also brandished a hand-held microphone suggestively.

“I would withdraw from events if anyone has been offended because that’s never been my position,” said O’Sullivan, who will face fellow former champion Mark Williams in the last 16.

“If anyone has a problem then I will quite happily take my punishment and walk away. I’ll voluntarily pull out of tournaments if that’s what it takes because I don’t want to bring this game down. I love snooker.

“If I get a letter from the Chinese sponsor saying ’we don’t want you playing in these events’, I will step down, but that’s not the vibe I get. The same with sponsors in this country, if they decide they don’t want me in the game, just tell me.

“I’d be quite happy to walk away and find something else to do. I wouldn’t want to be somewhere where I thought I was causing trouble. If I’m that much of a problem, that bad an advert for the game and I’m that awful, then okay, but I don’t really see it like that.”

The only second-round match to finish today features Peter Ebdon and Mark King, Ebdon taking a 5-3 lead into today’s play.

Stephen Hendry begins his match with Ding Junhui, Shaun Murphy faces Ali Carter and defending champion John Higgins takes a 5-3 lead over Ryan Day into their second session.