Maguire: I fear no one in quarters
STEPHEN Maguire insists he has no fear about who he meets in the Betfred World Championship after making his first quarterfinal since 2012 with victory over Rory McLeod.
The Scot resumed 6-2 up in the Crucible and kept his foot firmly on the pedal, winning 13-3 with a session to spare to earn a day off today.
Breaks of 114, 61, 90 and 57 did the damage, and the Glasgow potter is now set to face either fellow Scot and 2006 champion Graeme Dott or England’s Barry Hawkins in the last eight.
But for Maguire, twice a Sheffield semi-finalist, the duty now is to focus on his own game to reach new ground – with the last-four heartbreak against John Higgins a decade ago still a bone of contention.
“The performance was okay. Rory had a lot of chances and I wasn’t in top form, so it could have been a different game if he’d taken just half of those,” said the world No.24, who hadn’t won a Crucible match since 2012 before this week.
“I came out today at 6-2 and I wasn’t thinking about winning with a session to spare.
“But when it went 9-3 I knew I had half a chance, it was just a case of trying not to put the suit on Monday night.
“I don’t want to play either of them [Dott or Hawkins], they’re both great players.
“But I don’t fear anyone and if I play the game that I want to play then I fancy winning.
“I’ve never gone all the way. I’ve never gotten to the final so I can’t say I fancy winning it because I don’t know what it takes. All I can do is beat who is in front of me and I fancy doing that.
“I let the match slip against John [Higgins], that was the year I perhaps should have won it.
“It used to annoy me a lot more than it does now but there are worse things in life.”
Maguire and Higgins could face each other in this year’s last four too, with the latter facing Kyren Wilson in the last-eight match starting tomorrow.
In yesterday’s other match, defending champion Mark Selby maintained his fourframe lead against Xiao Guodong.
The world No.1 had led 6-2 in the best-of-25 encounter, with the pair sharing the eight frames in the session to leave Selby three away from victory.
That was due to breaks of 62, 68 and 57, though Xiao showed he is no pushover, making 131 in the 11th frame – the highest break of the contest so far.
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