Practice makes perfect for Maguire

Published on Thursday 23 April 2009 23:24

STEPHEN Maguire last night insisted nothing would distract him as he bids for his first world snooker title.

The Glaswegian had experienced a disruption to his build-up for the Betfred.com World Championship. He was interviewed by Strathclyde Police last week after their economic crime unit opened an investigation into the result of his December match against Jamie Burnett at the UK Championship.

But world No 2 Maguire shrugged that aside as he beat fellow Scot Burnett 10-5 to secure his place in the second round at the Crucible, where Mark King will be his next opponent.

"I'm just here to play snooker," Maguire said. "I don't read much of what's going on."

He explained: "I'm distracted by nothing. I've been practising hard. Practice has gone well and it's paid off in the first match."

Maguire made three centuries in the match, including a total clearance of 127 in the final frame. "I played well and scored well," he added. "My long potting was great."

Burnett, a good friend of Maguire, refused to comment on the police investigation. The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association has also been conducting its own inquiry into the result of the match at Telford last December, which Maguire won 9-3.

Bookmakers had alerted snooker chiefs to what they considered to be unusual betting patterns prior to the match. Both players have previously denied any wrong-doing and have pledged to assist with the investigations.

Burnett said he had been focusing "as much as possible" on his Crucible opener. He added: "I knew I had a hard game so I knew I had to concentrate on that and that's why I put in so much work. How other people see me and Stephen is up to them. I'm not going to act any differently towards Stephen for any reason.

"Before the match we were friends, during the match we were friends and after the match we're friends. How other people look at it is just up to them."

Ronnie O'Sullivan appeared out of sorts as he began his second-round match against Northern Ireland's Mark Allen. The 33-year-old defending world champion had been frustrated with his opening performance against Stuart Bingham and gave himself marks of five out of ten. Last night's display was worse, yet somehow O'Sullivan managed to emerge on level terms at 4-4 with the man from Antrim, with two sessions still to come in the best-of-25-frames clash.

They resume this afternoon and the match will conclude tomorrow.

Earlier, John Higgins, the man O'Sullivan has pinpointed as his biggest rival for the trophy, raced into round two by brushing Michael Holt aside. Higgins, champion in 1998 and 2007, had been 4-2 behind against Holt at one stage on Wednesday, but he lost only one more frame as he emerged a 10-5 winner.

Higgins made breaks of 131, 68 and 80 yesterday, winning the closing four frames in rapid fashion to set up a clash with Jamie Cope in the last 16.

Higgins expects a tough match against a player he has lost to before. Cope, 23, has an attacking instinct and has made two 147 maximum breaks in competition.

Higgins said: "He thumped me in the UK Championship two years ago, he beat me 9-3, totally destroyed me and played great. He's young, he's exciting, he likes to go for his shots and it's a game to look forward to."

Holt was despondent afterwards, reflecting on his failure, at the age of 30, to break into the top bracket of players. "It's just ten years of failure basically," he said. "I believe that I'm good enough. It's ten years of nothing. It's embarrassing."

Stephen Hendry and Ding Junhui are tied at 4-4 after the first session. They will play to a finish today.