Stephen Maguire denied Jimmy White his first ranking event title since 1992 when he landed the European Open title with a stunning 9-3 victory over the 'Whirlwind' in Malta last night. Maguire resumed leading 7-1 after the first session and kept his head to become the youngest winner of a ranking tournament since John Higgins clinched the 1998 Embassy World Championship. And the Glaswegian, who turns 23 next Saturday, picked up £48,000 for winning the first major title of his five-year professional career.
"I've never been past the last 16 of a ranking tournament before but I always knew I was good enough to win one, it was just a case of doing it for the first time," said Maguire, the world number 41.
White, who pocketed £24,000 as runner-up, defeated Stephen Hendry in the second round and local hero Tony Drago in the semi-finals but was outclassed for much of the final. "He gave me a good bashing," White admitted. "He outplayed me in safety, potting and position so he deserved to win. "I'm pleased for him because he's a nice lad but I'm disappointed because I didn't compete."
Maguire fired in breaks of 96, 74 and 137 to build a 3-0 lead, added the fourth and went five frames clear with a run of 103 in the fifth. He then pulled away to 6-0 after being given the sixth frame when White was called for three successive misses. Maguire had been lucky to leave the cue ball in the jaws of a corner pocket. Rather than roll to the five remaining reds, and therefore almost certainly leave one on, White twice attempted to hit them off the side cushion. After twice failing, he was informed by referee Jan Verhaas that he must make contact a third time or face losing the frame under snooker's 'three misses and you're out' rule.
White chose to play the slow roll but missed again and faced the prospect of suffering only the second whitewash in a ranking event final 15 years after Steve Davis beat Dean Reynolds 10-0 to win the 1989 Grand Prix at Reading. However, White finally stopped the rot by claiming the seventh on the black, although Maguire would have won it had he completed an audacious pot by sending the cue ball the full length of the table, off the top cushion, and back towards a centre pocket where the black was hanging in the jaws.
White looked set to reduce his arrears to 6-2 in the last of the afternoon but missed a red leading 50-0 and Maguire cleared to the pink with 62. He won the first frame of the evening session with a run of 78 and fashioned 125 to close to 8-3 but Maguire won the 12th frame in two visits to prevent any further recovery.
Maguire becomes the fifth Scot - after Hendry, John Higgins, Alan McManus and Chris Small - to win a ranking title. He was made to work hard just to get to the final, recovering from 3-0 down to beat Peter Ebdon 5-4 and from 4-1 down to edge Joe Perry in a decider.
In the quarter-finals, he beat Higgins 5-3 before scraping over the line a 6-4 winner against Stephen Lee in the last four.
Filed by James Boylan
