Maguire Wins China Open 

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Stephen Maguire scraped to victory in a very tight and tense match with Shaun Murphy to lift the trophy of the Honghe Industrial World Snooker China Open and pocket a cool £40,000 for his troubles.

He won the match 10-9 to seal victory and along with Murphy looks in good form going into this months World Championships in Sheffield.

Quarterfinals:

• Nigel Bond 0 - 5 Stephen Maguire
• Mark Williams 3 - 5 Ryan Day
• Shaun Murphy 5 - 3 Mark Allen
• Mark Selby 5 - 2 John Higgins

Last week I predicted a win for Shaun Murphy and that he would play Maguire in the final! I was almost right.

Semi-Final:

• Stephen Maguire 6 - 5 Ryan Day
• Shaun Murphy 6 - 3 Mark Selby

Final:

• Stephen Maguire 10 - 9 Shaun Murphy

It was nice to see both Nigel Bond and Mark Williams get a couple of wins under their respective belts as both had been struggling for form - especially Williams who looked as though he had found other priorities outside of snooker, a good time to find some form is now!

The world championships as I mentioned previously start towards the end of this month and are going to be as hotly contested as ever, with everyone's champion elect - Ding Junhui - not showing the form he showed last year it could be left down to the usual suspects to lift the title. I would expect strong showings from Ronnie O'Sullivan, Shaun Murphy, Mark Selby and John Higgins in addition to Stephen Maguire.