On-fire Maguire captures PTC 12 title

23:06:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments

One very happy Maguire
Stephen Maguire defeated Joe Perry 4-2 to lift the PTC 12 title in Germany's Munich. After starting the last battle of cues with a failed attempt to hit a maximum, the Scottish player didn't lose his grip and continued to cruise for victory.

In was back in 2008 when Stephen Maguire was defeating Shaun Murphy in a decider to get the China Open trophy in his bag, so no more than four year passed to win another ranking event title, even if (this time) it's a minor one.

Maguire booked himself a ticket to Germany by taking down Ricky Norris, Zhang Anda and Ali Carter 4-1. The Last 16 round spot was now secured so he just needed to keep going. And he did.
Another 4-1 result was used to hammer his first opponent, David Gray, while Andrew Higginson got a cruel 4-0 treatment in the quarter-finals.

The semis saw Maguire meet an old rival, but also a fellow-country, Stephen Hendry. The lads have met during last year Welsh Open and UK Championship, both times Maguire being the one who prevailed. This time wouldn't be any different, but it was a hard fought battle ended on a 4-3 scoreline.


Joe Perry - the 2012 PTC 12 runner-up
Joe Perry was his final opponent, a player that secured his trip to Germany by defeating Stephen Craigie 4-1, crashing Robbie Williams 4-0 and ending a pink-army-buddy's run (aka. Mark Davis) by 4-1.

His Last 16 opponent, David Gilbert was kneeled down 4-1, a scoreline that Perry also used against Ricky Walden in the quarter-finals in order to set a semis snooker encounter with Martin Gould, encounter that ended with Joe winning it 4-0.

The final battle began with Maguire trying to make a maximum (it would have been his third one as a professional snooker player), but sadly he missed a black as he was on a 105. Still, the first frame was secured, the following one being cashed also by the Scotsman, this time with a break of 77.

Perry managed to pull back a frame with a top break of 63, but Maguire's 93 clearance from the 5th frame put him just one step away from victory, leading 3-1.
However, the suspense was prolonged when the Englishman hit a 75 break to get his second frame of the evening under the belt. The scoreline was now 3-2, but it didn't stay like that for long. The reason? A break of 62 from Maguire, break that was sealing a 4-2 victory and getting him a well deserved shiny trophy.

PTC 12 is the last event of this season's PTC series, the next step being March's Grand Final from Ireland, where the first 24 players that have had the best results after performing in these mini-tournaments are meeting in order to conquer the "final frontier’s trophy".


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