Snooker: O'Sullivan fights back to fend off Maguire

Ronnie O'Sullivan narrowly avoided becoming only the sixth defending champion to lose their opening match here in Sheffield when he won the last three frames to edge Stephen Maguire 10-9 in the first round of the Embassy World Championship last night.

Ronnie O'Sullivan narrowly avoided becoming only the sixth defending champion to lose their opening match here in Sheffield when he won the last three frames to edge Stephen Maguire 10-9 in the first round of the Embassy World Championship last night.

O'Sullivan, who romped to an 18-8 victory over Graeme Dott in last year's final, looked set to suffer a 10-7 defeat when Maguire, the UK champion, was in the balls on 54 in the 17th frame. However, the Glaswegian missed and O'Sullivan cleared up before making breaks of 74 and 68 to secure his second round place.

This, though, did not in itself please O'Sullivan, whose search for perfection has regularly resulted in disappointment even in victory. "I've been struggling with my game all season even though I've been winning tournaments and I would have been happy to have lost in a way," he said.

"I can't kid myself I'm enjoying it. In a way I had nothing to lose because I could have gone home. My heart's not in it but in the end I was relieved to get through."

O'Sullivan has won four titles this season but many predicted he would struggle against Maguire. The world no 1 won three of the last four frames to edge the opening session 5-4 but lost three frames in succession from 6-4 as Maguire proved his mettle in the toughest of all arenas. An 89 reduced O'Sullivan's arrears to 8-7 before Maguire's 70 brought him to within a frame of victory but his missed black proved costly.

"I'm in shock, I don't know what to think," said Maguire moments after the match. "It was a twitch on the black. I thought I'd won but it just shows that a miss like that will come back to haunt you.

"I didn't get another chance and Ronnie played really well in the last two frames. It was a tough draw but if you want to win the tournament, you have to play the likes of Ronnie at some point."

O'Sullivan returned home to Chigwell last night, not least for his mother's birthday, but plans to meet up with his mentor Ray Reardon on Tuesday before heading back for his second round match against Marco Fu or Ali Carter on Thursday.

Although O'Sullivan's two world titles and 16 others of ranking status is a substantial record, it would almost certainly have been better but for a volatility of temperament and variety of off-table problems. He has always been a marvellous potter and break-builder, arguably the greatest instinctive genius in the whole of British sport, but it is only in the past couple of years that he has acquired a comparable maturity and discipline in battling against the grain. This improvement is certainly in part due to Ray Reardon, six times the world champion in the Seventies, who began advising him a year ago.

It was a session in which O'Sullivan suffered several frustrations, notably an explosive kick which cost him a simple black early in the second frame as he fell 2-0 behind, largely due to Maguire's efforts of 50 and 59.

Several subtle shafts of misfortune, not least in opening tight bunches of reds less productively than usual, also went against him, but it was only impatience with his own fleeting imperfections that caused him to kick a table leg and subsequently thump his cue to the floor in exasperation. At other times, he smiled as he relished the struggle, although his intensity of desire was always evident.

From his first clear-cut chance, O'Sullivan made 72 to win the third, and, from level- pegging with two reds left, emerged from a lengthy safety duel to add the fourth.

Maguire has become one of his chief rivals, and beat him twice in three weeks: in the semi-finals of November's British Open, in which Maguire lost to John Higgins in the final; and on the first televised day of the UK Championship, which he went on to win.

Although he has not reached these heights since Christmas, this 24-year-old Scot has risen from his start-of-season 24 to a provisional third in the world rankings, behind only O'Sullivan and Hendry.

Maguire's third half-century, 54, was chiefly responsible for him regaining the lead at 3-2, but O'Sullivan's 115, his 36th century of a season which has already brought him four titles out of the seven events in which he has competed, and 73 from 49 behind saw the champion ahead for the first time at 4-3 and again at 5-4 as he closed the session with an imperious 99.

David Gray, subdued since his 10-1 trouncing by Maguire in the UK final, laboured for three hours and 25 minutes to establish a 4-2 overnight lead over Anthony Hamilton.

This afternoon, Paul Hunter, the No 4 seed, is sure of an emotional welcome for his match against Michael Holt, one of three Crucible debutants this year. Recently diagnosed with cancer, the 26-year-old Yorkshireman is due to have a CT scan this week, and even if he beats Holt will withdraw from the championship if so advised. He is to begin chemotherapy on 4 May.

Matthew Stevens, who has appeared in one final and three semis here, all of them close, has been a first fence faller in 11 of his last 14 tournaments. Despite his inconsistency, this 27-year-old Welshman must be considered a potential finalist from the bottom half, in which Hendry and Mark Williams, champion in 2000 and 2003, are seeded to meet in the semi-finals.

Stevens resumes this evening with a 6-3 lead over Andy Hicks, just as Steve Davis, at 47 the doyen of the circuit, tries to overcome a 5-4 deficit to progress at the expense of Northern Ireland's No 1, Gerard Greene.

Off-table, the worst kept secret in the game will be revealed on Friday with the announcement that this championship is to remain here at the Crucible after a bidding process which attracted responses from seven cities.

Sir Rodney Walker, who last week agreed to continue as the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association chairman until November 2007, was speaking recently of obtaining £250,000 a year for the privilege of staging the championship rather than continuing to pay the Crucible in the order of £130,000.

By government decree, this will be the last year of Embassy's sponsorship, reduced this time, also by government decree, to £1.07 million. No long-term replace-ment sponsor is likely to be announced until the BBC contract, which expires in 2006, is renewed.