Stephen Maguire reaches second round of 2012 China Open after beating Barry Hawkins in Round 1
Scotland’s Stephen Maguire put up an excellent snooker display in the first round of the 2012 China Open snooker tournament at the Beijing University Students Gymnasium arena against the 2012 Snooker Shootout winner, England’s Barry Hawkins. The Scotsman
pocketed some impressive knocks to nudge the Englishman down by the score line of 5-1.
Maguire showed his improved performance at the baize in China and stunned the 2012 Snooker Shootout winner completely with his impressive potting skills. A couple of months back, the Scot made his way into the final encounter of the 2012 German Masters which
was a proof of his outstanding snooker genius. However, he was not able to win the final and lost to the former three-time World Snooker Champion, England’s Ronnie O’Sullivan.
Maguire started his first round match brilliantly with a superb 2-0 lead in the first session of the match. The Scottish potter was about to extend his lead to 3-0 before he missed on a simple pink to let Hawkins at the table. The Hawk cleared the table
in no time to move within one frame up at 2-1. Winning a single frame against Maguire did not do any good to Hawkins as the 31-year-old took the next three frames to hit the wining spot by the score line of 5-1.
Speaking to World Snooker after clinching his victory, Maguire said, “I think I just played a little bit better than Barry there. We've played a lot of times and it's usually very, very tough, a close match. But Barry wasn't at the races today and lucky
enough for me I managed to pick him off.”
The Glasgow potter will next face the former Shanghai Masters winner, England’s Ricky Walden in the second round of the tournament at the same venue.
Meanwhile, in another clash, Ireland’s Fergal O’Brien clinched his first victory of the tournament after beating China’s Jin Long in the wild card round by the score line of 5-4. The Chinese potter did give him a hard time but he managed to hit the win.
He will now meet the Welsh Potting Machine, Mark Williams, in the opening round of 2012 China Open.
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