Masters / Paul Krishnamurty / 17 January 2009 / Leave a comment

Once again, playing at Wembley in front of what is effectively a home crowd has brought the best out of Ronnie O'Sullivan. There was no arguing with his comprehensive destruction of Ali Carter in last night's quarter-final, but he isn't the only man in form, writes Paul Krishnamurty.

Stephen Maguire's performance yesterday was, for me, the highlight of the tournament so far. He produced near perfect snooker to beat Neil Robertson 6-3 in a quite outstanding match, and on that basis shouldn't be outsider against anybody. Even Ronnie.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Maguire's performance wasn't just the relentless scoring. Rather it was his total focus, even when frames were already won. On a couple of occasions, Maguire visibly berated himself for losing position, once just for missing a kiss on the final red, when the only remaining interest in the frame was the size of his break. The clenched fist at the end told its own story. Having fallen at the semi-final stage three times this season already, Maguire wants this title badly.

Though Maguire has always struggled to produce his world-beating best on a consistent basis, when fully on song he is as good as anyone. I'm reminded of his 6-1 Scottish Open semi-final drubbing of O'Sullivan back in 2004, after which Ronnie admitted there was no better player in the world on that form. That may have been unnecessarily modest coming from the Rocket of all people, but there's no doubt that when 'On Fire', Maguire plays the type of perfect, break-building snooker in the style of his old practice partner Stephen Hendry in his pomp.

All things considered, including due respect to O'Sullivan, Maguire simply must represent good trading value at the current odds of [2.5].