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Stephen Maguire

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Stephen Maguire
NicknameOn Fire[1]
Professional1998–
Highest ranking
  1. 2 (2 years)
Current ranking 30 (as of 16 July 2024)
Century breaks521 (as of 3 August 2024)
Tournament wins
Ranking4

Stephen Maguire (born 13 March 1981 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a Scottish professional snooker player.

Career

Maguire almost qualified for the 2000 World Championships, leading eventual semi-finalist Joe Swail 9-6 in the final qualifying round before losing 10-9 [3], but first served notice of his true potential by knocking out Stephen Lee in the first round of the UK Championship in 2002.

Maguire was the surprise winner of the 2004 European Open. Ranked 41 in the world at the time, he beat well established top-16 player Jimmy White 9-3 in the final. It was in that same season that he qualified for the World Championship for the first time, losing 6-10 in the first round to Ronnie O'Sullivan, but O'Sullivan admitted to being impressed by Maguire's performance and tipped him to be a future World Champion.[4]

The start of the 2004/05 season saw Maguire establish himself as one of the game's brightest talents. He performed well at the season opening Grand Prix, reaching the quarter-finals, and things improved further at the British Open in Brighton. Maguire hammered Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-1 in the semi-finals, and O'Sullivan claimed that 'he had never seen anything like that on a snooker table before' and also rated Maguire as 'probably the best player in the world at the moment'.[5] Although Maguire lost the final 6-9 to his compatriot John Higgins, he more than made up for it at the next event, the UK Championship, snooker's second biggest tournament.

The Scotsman played some superb snooker on the way to the final, beating the likes of Mark King, Mark Davis, Stephen Lee and two World Championship winners in the shape of Ronnie O'Sullivan and Steve Davis. Davis went as far as describing Maguire as 'inspired' [6]. In the final, Maguire blazed past David Gray with an emphatic 10-1 win.[7]

The rest of the season was an anti-climax of sorts however. He suffered an agonising loss at the hands of defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan in their 2005 World Championship first-round match , 9-10, having led 9-7, but he still moved up to #3 in the world rankings. In the 2005/2006 season, he only reached one quarter-final, showing evidence of a loss in form, especially when losing 13-4 to qualifier Marco Fu in the second round of the World Championships.

Maguire has a rivalry with Shaun Murphy. In a 2004 Grand Prix match, Murphy was involved in having one of Maguire's frames forfeited. As the match was about to begin, Maguire realised he had forgotten to bring his chalk with him. He asked referee Johan Oomen for permission to leave the arena.[8] While he was away, Murphy spoke to the referee; the tournament director Mike Ganley was summoned and he docked Maguire a frame for not being ready to start at the scheduled time.[9] Maguire later won the match 5-2. Later that year, whilst playing in the final of the UK Championships, David Gray forgot his chalk. However, Maguire let him get it without a frame being docked. After beating Murphy in the 2007 Welsh Open, Maguire said, 'That put the icing on the cake, but we've always had a rivalry. I dislike him and I think he dislikes me. I try hard to beat everyone, but it would have hurt more if I'd lost to him'.[9] After the previously mentioned 2006 World Championship match with Marco Fu, Maguire said, 'I don't want to be a fat world champion', a dig at Murphy, which may have simply reflected Maguire's own disappointment at his season, which saw him slide from 3 to 9 in the rankings.[10]

In 2007, he recorded his best run at the World Championship reaching the semi-final, where he lost 15-17 to eventual champion John Higgins having led 14-10. In the 2008 World Championships, he was edged out by Joe Perry in the quarter-finals 13-12.

Stephen again beat Shaun Murphy in the 2007 UK Championship semi-final 9-5 only to lose 10-2 to Ronnie O'Sullivan in the final. In the 2008 China Open, he compiled a 147 in narrowly beating his friend Welshman Ryan Day 6-5 in the semi-finals, before edging out Shaun Murphy once again in the final by 10 frames to 9.

Despite losing at the quarter-final stage of the 2008 World Championship in another final frame decider (12-13) to Joe Perry, he became the world number 2, his highest ever ranking, for the 2008/09 season. Having severed most of his ties the previous summer, Maguire formally left management company 110sport in the summer of 2008, but returned in October.[11]

The following season he failed to win a ranking event but done enough to maintain his number two ranking at the end of the season by consistently reaching the later stages of tournaments. His best runs were semi-final appearances in the Shanghai Masters and UK Championship. In the Shanghai Masters he lost narrowly 6-5 to Ronnie O'Sullivan and in the UK Championship 9-4 to Shaun Murphy.

In July 2009 Maguire won the first event of the Pro Challenge Series 2009/2010 beating Alan McManus 5-2 in the final.

Maguire was formally detained by Strathclyde Police on August 27 2009, following allegations that he and countryman Jamie Burnett had colluded to produce a 9-3 victory for Maguire in their clash in the 2008 UK Championship[12]

Maguire's first event of 2010 was the Masters. He beat Mark King 6-3 in the first round and Ryan Day 6-1 in the quarter-finals.

Personal life

Stephen has a son Finn and a daughter Faith with his long term fiancee Sharon [13]

He does not have to wear a bow tie in professional snooker matches due to medical problems, which he has a doctor's certificate for.[14]

Performance Timeline

Ranking Tournaments 1998/
99 		1999/
00 		2000/
01 		2001/
02 		2002/
03 		2003/
04 		2004/
05 		2005/
06 		2006/
07 		2007/
08 		2008/
09 		2009/
10
Shanghai Masters Not Held 1R SF 1R
Grand Prix / LG Cup LQ LQ 1R LQ 1R LQ LQ QF 1R 2R 1R 2R
UK Championship LQ 3R 1R LQ 2R 2R W 3R 3R F SF SF
Welsh Open LQ 2R LQ LQ LQ 1R 2R 2R SF 2R QF SF
China Open LQ LQ 1R LQ Not Held LQ 1R 2R W 1R
World Snooker Championship Lost in Qualifying Draw 1R 1R 2R SF QF QF
Non-Ranking Tournaments
The Masters Did Not Participate WR 1R SF QF QF SF
Premier League Did Not Participate RR Did Not Participate
Former Ranking Tournaments
Scottish Open LQ 1R 2R 1R 1R LQ Not Held
British Open LQ 4R LQ LQ LQ 2R F Not Held
Irish Masters NR 2R 1R 1R NH NR Not Held
European Open/Irish Open/Malta Cup A Not Held LQ LQ W 2R QF 2R NR NH
Northern Ireland Trophy Not Held NR 3R W QF NH
Bahrain Championship Not Held QF NH
Performance Table Legend
NH tournament not held in that calendar year A did not participate in the tournament
LQ lost in qualifying draw #R lost in the early rounds of the tournament
(RR = round robin)
QF advanced to but not past the quarterfinals SF advanced to but not past the semifinals
F advanced to the final, tournament runner-up W won the tournament
NR means the event offered no rankings points for that season.

Tournament wins

Ranking tournaments

Non-Ranking tournaments

Amateur tournaments

  • IBSF World Amateur Championship, 2000

References

  1. ^ "Stephen Maguire". World Snooker Tour. Archived from the original on 5 December 2023. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
  2. ^ Yahoo! Sport. 2009. Stephen Maguire. [Online] Yahoo! UK (Updated 2010) Available at: http://uk.yahoo.eurosport.com/snooker/person_prs28965.shtml [Accessed 19 February 2010].
  3. ^ Sporting Life: Joe Swail profile
  4. ^ BBC Sport: O'Sullivan downs Maguire
  5. ^ BBC Sport: O'Sullivan crashes out to Maguire
  6. ^ The Press: Davis hails new star
  7. ^ BBC Sport: Rampant Maguire wraps up UK title
  8. ^ BBC Sport: Williams crashes out
  9. ^ a b Higginson Sporting Life: Revelling in Spotlight
  10. ^ "BBC Sport: Quotes from The Crucible
  11. ^ "110sport: Maguire Signs Exciting New Three-year 110sport Deal
  12. ^ World Snooker News: Statement
  13. ^ "Official player profile of Stephen Maguire". wst.tv. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. "Players" section. Retrieved 5 August 2024.
  14. ^ "Maguire aiming to retain NI title" BBC Sport, 20 August 2008. Retrieved on 19 December 2008.

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