Stephen Maguire versus Barry Hawkins – 2011 Betfred.com World Snooker Championship Preview
Stephen Maguire and Barry Hawkins are set to meet in the first round of the 2011 Betfred.com World Snooker Championship, which is going to be staged from 16 April to 3 May, at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, England.
It is going to be an interesting match, as the Livewire, Maguire, takes on the Hawk, Hawkins. Both players have met nine times before in any professional tournament. Their first meeting was in 2000 Merseyside Open, at the George Scott Snooker Club and second
in 2002 Benson & Hedges Championship. Both players shared one win each in these two meeting. Their third clash came during the 2007 Pontins Pro-Am Series, at the Prestatyn venue and it also fell for Hawkins.
Their first ranking event’s meeting came during the Group stages of the 2007 Grand Prix and once again it was the Englishman, Hawkins, who outplayed his Scottish opponent, Maguire. Since then Barry has not been able to register himself, as Maguire won all
of the following four matches. The first two matches out of these four came in China; in 2008 and 2010. Third match was in the 2010 Welsh Open and finally fourth came during the first PTC event at Sheffield Academy. So in their overall head-to-head record
Maguire leads Hawkins by 5-4.
As far as their Crucible history is concerned, the world number six, Maguire, has appeared seven times before and this is going to be his eighth time. His best performance came during the 2007 World Championship, where he made it to the semi-final before
losing out to John Higgins by a frame score of 17-15. He has also made it to the quarter-finals a couple of times in 2008 and 2009 World Championship.
Meanwhile the world number twenty-five, Hawkins, has participated five times before and this will be his sixth appearance. However the 31-year-old, Hawkins, has not been able to break his duck as of yet, as he lost all five times in the last-32. So arguably
it can be said that Maguire’s credentials are far better than Hawkins.
The 30-year-old Scottish, Maguire, has also had a pretty good season this year. He started off with the PTC1 event with a run to the final and then made a last-16 appearance in the season’s first full ranking event Shanghai Masters. He also reached the quarter-finals
of both the World Open and UK Championship before he eventually lost his battle to Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins respectively.
During 2010 he suffered an early exit in the Masters. He made it to the quarter-final again in the Welsh Open. His best performance, however, had to come during this year’s Welsh Open where he outplayed the likes of Gerard Greene, Stephen Hendry, Mark Williams
and Mark Selby to reach his first final since 2008 China Open. Though he lost the final to John Higgins, his wins over Selby and Williams showed he can still beat the best players in the game at the moment. Maguire withdrew from the PTC Grand Finals due to
his child’s birth and later on he succumbed to Mark Davis early at the China Open.
While for Hawkins on the other hand it has not been a good season. Though he impressively beat Mark Selby at the World Open by a frame score of 3-2, he lost in the qualifying rounds of both the Shanghai Masters and German Masters. He also lost out in the
last-32 of the season’s other three events.
Keeping all the facts and figures in mind, it is fair to say that Stephen Maguire will be a red-hot favourite for the match, though Hawkins has the capability of producing a high standard game.
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