Maguire and Dott in all Scottish battle
Stephen Maguire and Graeme Dott will play each other in the last-16 of the snooker world championship today.
Maguire overcame Stephen Lee yesterday 10-4, while Dott beat 2002 world champion Peter Ebdon 10-5. World No.2 Maguire was barely troubled in his match, and made breaks of 60, 84 and 114 to brush aside the challenge of Lee, and is now looking forward to playing his compatriot.
“It will be a very tough match against Graeme. He is back to the way he was playing a few years ago, and he loves it here. It was a great win he had against Peter Ebdon. It was a really tough match on paper and he made it look quite easy. I will need to be on my toes. Whoever doesn't win the match will be wishing the winner the best. And hopefully one of the Scots can bring the trophy back anyway,” said Maguire.
Graeme Dott had a tough battle on his hands it seemed on paper, but he comfortably dispatched of Ebdon 10-5 in a repeat of the 2006 world final. Dott, the champion in that year, had a 7-2 lead at the midway point of the tie, and virtually had one foot in the next round.
Dott has aims of getting back into the top 16, and he is aiming for a good run at Sheffield.
“There's nothing that can happen here that I haven't seen before so I am obviously experienced enough to deal with everything. I need to try and win another couple of games here to get back into the top 16.
“If I don't happen to beat him, I'd hope Stephen wins it. Obviously he's never won it before, Stephen Hendry has won it, John has won it and so have I. So it would be nice to see Stephen win it, but hopefully that won't happen this year.” Dott said.
Maguire and Dott will start their match at 2.30pm this afternoon.
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