Welsh Open 2011 - the final (part I)

18:58:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments

Stephen Maguire is definitely on fire!
It’s crystal clear that Stephen Maguire has woken up in a great mood for snooker this morning as he instantly took the lead over his fellow-country and practicing partner John Higgins in the first session of this year’s Welsh Open.
"The proud of Glasgow" as Rob Waken introduced Stephen, has practically continued his beautiful run from the other night, when he beat Mark Selby for a place in today’s final, while his opponent, John Higgins, seemed in not such a good form. He has struggled with the long pots and it wasn’t until the second frame of the match, that “The Wizard of Wishaw” scored his first points.


Maguire stormed out by taking over the first two frames by hitting breaks of 59, 24, 53 and 20, only to see Higgins pulling one back with a marvelous 120 clearance. Still, the next frame was cashed by the leading player with a break of 89 who was in his way to win yet another frame, if it wasn’t for that missed red while he was just reaching for a 58 break. So John came for a 72, to set the score at 2-3 in favor of his opponent.


John Higgins a bit worried about his future in this final
A break of 76 brought Maguire with a two frame lead, just before the boys were to play a scrappy affair, which in the end was won by Stephen. During that frame, Higgins had plenty of chances but his trembling hand failed as to see him win it. It wasn’t a pleasant first session for John, that’s for sure.
Still, the last frame saw Wishaw`s Wizard hitting a 70 break, as Maguire’s major kick ended his run at just 18 points. So the current score is 5-3, in favor of Maguire.


This affair looks a bit like the 2010 UK Championship’s first session, when Mark Williams was the man, during the second encounter Higgins making that beautiful comeback and winning the competition. I don’t know if John can pull that scheme one more time, but the wise thing to do here is equalizing the situation at hand as soon as the second session starts. As for Maguire - he has proved to be on fire! :-)) He is potting like a king and the only times he missed, was when he had a kick or had to pot a ball from an awkward position.


The second session starts at 7pm (UK time) so be sure to watch the final frames and cheer for your favorite ;-)

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