Snooker Players

Magic McGill Stuns Maguire - World Snooker Championship 2015

Crucible debutant Anthony McGill has stunned fellow Scot Stephen Maguire on day two of the Betfred World Snooker Championship 2015, firing in a 122 break in the decider to win 10-9 and set up a Last 16 match against defending champion Mark Selby.

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Photos by Monique Limbos. See her Crucible albums here.

Anthony McGill has been tipped by many as one of snooker's next big talents, and he showed experience way past his 24 years as he beat fellow Glasgow pro Stephen Maguire 10-9, despite having seen a 9-5 lead reduced to 9-9 by the former UK champion.

McGill started off strongly, knocking in a break of 92 in the opening frame, and although Maguire levelled with a 62 in the next, McGill stayed cool and surged 4-1 ahead of his practice partner with the help of two breaks of 53.

Maguire won two of the next three frames with breaks of 73 and 86, but was unable to capitalise on his lead in the ninth frame as a poor safety cost him and McGill finished the session with a 6-3 cushion. Although Maguire won the first frame of the final session, McGill went on the cusp of victory by winning three of the next four frames to lead 9-5, before "On Fire" Maguire staged a miraculous comeback.

Breaks of 51, 81, 56 and 32 helped Maguire force the decider and looked to be cruising towards the winning line before McGill made the best break of his career, a stunning 122 under crazy amounts of pressure to win the match 10-9.

Just as he had done in his final qualifying match against Mark King, McGill made a century to win a deciding frame and looked like it was his 10th trip to the world famous Crucible Theatre, and not his debut.

"Tartan Nugget" McGill's reward for what he called "the biggest win of my career" is a Last 16 clash against defending world champion Mark Selby who himself fought off a scare from Kurt Maflin to also win 10-9.

Marco Fu World Snooker Championship 2015 Also today at the Crucible, Marco Fu shrugged off his slow start to his match against Bexhill-On-Sea's Jimmy Robertson to fin the final three frames with top runs of 63 and 73 to progress a 10-6 winner and 2010 world champion Neil Robertson impressed to take a 7-2 lead against Jamie Jones with the help of a tournament high break of 143 in the 3rd frame.