McManus ends Maguire's defence hopes

Stephen Maguire is out of the Malta Cup after the defending champion was beaten by fellow Scot Alan McManus 5-3 in yesterday's opening session at the Hilton Conference Centre.

World no. 1 Ronnie O'Sullivan and Jimmy White were two other high-profile casualties of the tournament which today reaches its quarter-final stage. O'Sullivan suffered a surprising 5-0 defeat to Graeme Dott while White was eliminated by Australian sensation Neil Robertson.

Maguire had very fond memories of the Maltese islands coming into this tournament after last season he completed a surprising victory in the European Open final, beating White 9-3 to land his first ranking tournament title.

However, 2005 offered far less sweet moments for the promising Scottish player who yesterday produced a very low-key and erratic performance which smoothed the way for McManus, the world no. 10, to seal his place in the quarter-finals.

The match had started well for Maguire, who chalked up the first frame with a solid break of 89. However, that was only an illusion as the first cracks soon crept into his game with some poor positioning of the cueball and poor potting enabling McManus to go into the interval 3-1 up.

The opening two frames of the second session were shared with Maguire bridging the gap to 3-4 when winning the seventh frame.

However, McManus quickly killed off any hopes Maguire had of a dramatic recovery when he compiled an 83 to book his place in the last eight where he will play Matthew Stevens.

"It was a good solid performance," McManus said. "Stephen was not at his best. He missed too many balls, giving me a chance after another to turn the match in my favour. It was an important win not only for my confidence but also in terms of my rankings position.

"In today's game, it's not easy to preserve your top 16 place. The leading players are presented with the scenario of having to face a young qualifier in the first round of a tournament with an eventual defeat seriously undermining their chances of retaining their high-placing in the world list.

"Mark Williams is a clear example. Up to a few years ago he had the world at his feet and now he is struggling to be among the top 32 in the provisional list."

McManus sounded favourable to the practice of promoting the game of snooker outside UK's shores and listed Malta as one of the best venues worldwide. "I really enjoy coming to compete in Malta," he said. "The venue and the facilities are undoubtedly the best on the whole WSA circuit. All the players enjoy coming here and I'm sure that they will all be in favour of making this beautiful island a permanent venue in our annual calendar."

On the other hand, the disappointment on Maguire's face was evident."It was a terrible day for me," he said.

"It was a very poor performance. I missed so many easy balls that in the end I felt so embarrassed that I wanted to leave the arena as quickly as possible.

"It's important now that I put this performance behind me. There are still several important tournaments coming and I need to work really hard to get my form back as quickly as possible."

Stevens is McManus's opponent in the quarter-finals after the Welsh player notched his second win of the season when he beat Mike Dunn 5-3.

"It was a hard-fought success," Stevens said. "Winning the seventh frame was crucial. At 3-3 the match could have gone either way but I played some of my best snooker and set me on my way to victory.

"I haven't played McManus for almost four years now. But I'm not too concerned on his game. At the moment I'm focused to get my game back on track. So far this week has been very positive but there's still a long way to go before starting to talk on winning the title."

O'Sullivan was making his debut in the tournament after he had received a walk-over in the second round when his opponent, Australia's Quinten Hann, pulled out of the tournament.

The world champion was well below his best. He showed signs of nervousness, most evidently in the third frame when he conceded it after missing a red despite having ten red balls on the table.

Dott was outstanding hitting runs of 83 and 114 to set up a quarter-final clash with Steve Davis who edged Stuart Pettman 5-3.

Robertson kept his magnificent form going with a 5-2 defeat of White, his second win over the 'people's favourite' in as many tournaments.

Robertson will now face John Higgins, who saw off Peter Ebdon 5-2 with breaks of 69, 45 and 55.

Tom Ford's surprising run continued when late last night he beat Ken Doherty 5-2.

Results: Stevens bt Dunn 5-3; McManus bt Maguire 5-3; Hendry bt Hamilton 5-1; J. Higgins bt Ebdon 5-2; Robertson bt White 5-2; Dott bt O'Sullivan 5-0; Ford bt Doherty 5-2; Davis bt Pettman 5-3.

Today's quarter-finals - 4 p.m. N. Robertson vs J. Higgins; S. Davis vs G. Dott. 8 p.m. A. McManus vs M. Stevens; T. Ford vs S. Hendry.