Stephen Maguire and Mark Selby set to clash in Welsh Open semi-final
Stephen Maguire and Mark Selby are set to go head-to-head against each other in the semi-final of Wyldecrest Park Welsh Open 2011 at Newport Centre. Maguire and Selby sealed their semi-final spots defeating their respective opponents, Mark Williams of Wales
5-3 and Scottish Graeme Dott 5-3. Both players struggled a bit with their performance and consistency as they missed simple shots during their previous matches.
Maguire sidelined Williams 5-3 in the quarter-final after a topsy-turvy performance as Williams was one of the hot favourites to clinch the title. He was brilliant at the German Masters held in Berlin last month, beating Mark Selby of England 9-7 in the
final.
Glaswegian Maguire got an early 1-0 lead in the game clinching the first frame easily 85-5. The home favourite, Williams stormed back with back to back frame wins hitting a 54 break in second and 45 in the third to take the lead to 1-2. The Scot, turning
30 in March, secured the fifth frame with an excellent 65 clearance to level the game 2-2, but his 35-year-old opponent capitalised well firing a decent 63 to win the frame 15-88 and take a 2-3 lead.
The former two-time World Champion and current German Masters champion started well with 54, 45, 42 and 63 in the first five frames nudging down Maguire three times during the match but he could not break his passion. Maguire levelled 3-3 with a stunning
come-back century break of 105 in the sixth frame. The Welsh cueist was in trouble after the Scotsman won the seventh frame with a sensational 68 clearance at 78-8, to take a 4-3 lead.
Williams had a great chance in the eighth frame to capitalise and put the game into a decider when Maguire missed the brown at 44-7, but luckily for the Scot, the cue ball went behind the green with only one red left on the table. It was a tough snooker
to break as Williams tried his best to pot the difficult red with a spider rest but it was not his day. He missed the red and Maguire cleared the table to knock a spot in the semi-final of Welsh Open 2011.
William faced the same fate against Maguire at the 2010 Welsh Open quarter-final where he lost to the Scottish, 5-1.
England’s Mark Selby beat Scotsman, Graeme Dott 5-3 in another quarter-final of the event. Selby led 3-0 in the beginning with 68-6, 84-0, 64-52 and a decent 73 clearance in the second. Dott tussled to take the game 3-2 with 62 and 47 before Selby clinched
the sixth frame, extending his lead to 4-2 hitting a stunning 88 break.
Dott fought back with a 30-65 frame win but that could not stop Selby from stealing victory with a last frame win of 87-21 to book his place in the Welsh Open 2011 semi-final.
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