Maguire‘s Outburst Fuels Run โฃat International Championship
An unusual display of frustration from Stephen Maguire punctuated his match against Xu Si at the Internationalโฃ Championship this week. Trailing 63-43 โin theโฃ ninth frameโค of their best-of-11โ encounter, Maguire โattempted a snooker, butโ a misjudged shotโค resulted in the white ball cannoning into a blue and โฃsubsequently dropping into โฃthe middle pocket. Visibly angered โby the โerror and conceding the frame,โข the Scottish player forcefully struck the blackโ ball up the tableโ with โhis hand,โข sending it bouncing between the baulk and top โคcushions before returning to โคhis seat, still demonstrably โคfrustrated.
Despite the incident, Maguire rallied, winningโข the 10th frame to secure the match. He has continued โhis strong performance, defeating 2024 โฃworld champion Kyren Wilson and Jiang Jun to reach the quarter-finals, where he willโ face Zak Surety.
The tournament has also โseen a stunning upset as โWu Yize defeated world number one Judd Trump 6-4, overcoming โa significant โ4-0 deficit at the mid-session interval. Wu won โsix consecutive frames, holding Trumpโค to just 18 points in theโค latter stages of the match.
“I felt โขvery proud of myself,” Wuโค stated after the match. “After going 4-0 down Iโฃ fought shot by shot. The crowd really cheered me up. With all the fansโค cheering at the end it felt like a moment of true happiness.” Wu has as advanced to the semi-finals with a dominant 6-0 victory over Barry Hawkins.
Wu will now face defending world champion and fellow Chinese player Zhao Xintong, who secured a 6-5 win against โMark Selby – his โคfirstโข victory over Selby in six attempts.
Theโค semi-finalsโข willโค also feature the winner of โฃthe Maguire-surety match againstโ either shaun Murphy or John Higgins. Theโข champion in Nanjing will โreceive ยฃ175,000, with ยฃ75,000 awarded to the runner-up and ยฃ33,000 for โsemi-finalists. The tournament,which has been wonโ by Chinese players in the last two years (Zhangโ Andaโ in 2023 and Ding Junhui in 2022),will conclude this Sunday. Selbyโ and Trump are both formerโฃ two-time champions, while Murphy โwas a finalist in 2019.