BBC SPORT | Other Sport | Snooker (original) (raw)

Stephen Maguire will face John Higgins in an all-Scottish final at the British Open after thrashing world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan.

Maguire opened with breaks of 101 and 134 and, after dropping the fourth, finished with successive breaks of 71.

Higgns earlier took just 74 minutes to brush aside Shaun Murphy 6-0 and secure his place in the final.

He managed a break of 114 in the third frame before completing the victory a magnificent 144 total clearance.

O'Sullivan was simply blown away by the in-form Maguire, who opened the match with two centuries.

	He's probably the best in the world at the moment

On the back of finishing off with three against Anthony Hamilton in the previous round, that made Maguire the first ever player to compile five consecutive century breaks.

"I've never seen anything like that on a snooker table before," said O'Sullivan.

"Stephen Hendry and John Higgins are the best players I've seen but Stephen seems to have a little bit more.

"He has flair and that natural cue action where he can make things happen. He's a great player, probably the best in the world at the moment."

In the opening semi-final, Higgins put his awesome display down to a cue alteration.

"Steve Davis said on television that he thought my action was far too long," said Higgins, a first round loser at last month's Totesport Grand Prix.

"I ignored it at first but I realised that my cue was longer than it needed to be. It was 58 inches and when I was winning all my titles it was 57 and a quarter.

"Cue actions change over the years and I was out of control during matches, missing easy balls.

"Before the tournament I had the cue altered. It's helped my mindset and eradicated some of my misses.