November 25th 2024.
Stephen Maguire had a day to forget in York as he suffered a devastating defeat at the UK Championship. The Scot, who had emerged victorious in the qualifying rounds, was expected to give the world champion, Kyren Wilson, a run for his money. However, things did not go as planned for Maguire, who was far from his usual brilliant self.
With a pot success rate of only 57 per cent and a high break of 32, Maguire was left feeling disgusted with his performance. Wilson, on the other hand, did not have to put in his best effort to secure a whitewash win. In fact, his only two half-centuries of the match came in the final two frames, with breaks of 71 and 86. This left Maguire baffled and disappointed, as he described his performance as "rubbish" and "garbage."
"It's a hard one to take," Maguire told the BBC. "What can you do? Just go home and see what the next day brings. I can't explain it, you can't explain that, it's one of the worst performances ever. I'm struggling to believe how bad that was."
The 43-year-old had managed to defeat Artemijs Zizins and Elliot Slessor in the qualifying rounds, but his luck seemed to have run out in the main event. Reflecting on his performance, Maguire stated, "I've no words for that. Well, I have got a word, but I won't say it. Listen, it's nothing to do with the run of the ball, I was garbage. One thing to be happy about, at least it wasn't a best-of-19 because that would have been 10-0. At least I can go home tonight."
Despite the disappointing outcome, Maguire remains determined to keep trying and put this match behind him. He hopes that this performance was just a one-off and he will bounce back in the future.
Meanwhile, Wilson, who will now face Chris Wakelin in the last 16, acknowledged that the conditions at the Barbican in York were tough. "It was a strange match," the world champion said. "Early doors, both of us were going into the pack and not really landing on a ball and having to play safe."
He also mentioned the difficulty of the table, which made it challenging to judge shots and resulted in some unexpected outcomes. Wilson believes that this could have been a factor in Maguire's poor performance, although the Scot did not mention it himself. "When you have to start hitting the ball harder on these tables, the pockets are so unforgiving, it makes the game harder and harder. I just had to try and stay composed," Wilson explained.
As for the pundits, Shaun Murphy, who was on duty for the BBC, expressed his sympathy for Maguire, stating, "The 57 per cent pot success of Stephen Maguire, I've never seen that before. Who knows why he's had such a bad day. We've all had them, I feel for him, but he will be back."
[This article has been trending online recently and has been generated with AI. Your feed is customized.]
[Generative AI is experimental.]
