World Snooker Championship Betting / Paul Krishnamurty / 29 April 2009 /

Back Maguire to overhaul his favourite opponent today.

Going into the quarter-finals, Stephen Maguire was sharing favouritism for the tournament and a popular [1.6] chance to defeat Neil Robertson. One disappointing, if not disastrous, session later and he's friendless at [8.4] in the outright market and [2.5] just to reach the semis. This strikes me as a slight over-reaction, as after all, a 3-5 deficit is hardly catastrophic over these marathon three-session matches.

In honesty, Maguire hasn't played to his peaked yet in this event. He rattled in a series of big breaks in the first two rounds, but also become entangled in some scrappy exchanges against inferior opponents. He started very slowly against Mark King, so it must be to Maguire's credit that he took eight of the last nine frames for what now seems a facile 13-6 win.

If he gets on another roll like that, Robertson's 5-3 lead will soon be vulnerable. It's also worth recalling that in the past, the Aussie has proved to be Maguire's favourite opponent. After hammering Robertson in last year's second round, Maguire put up what I believe to be one of the finest performances of all-time to win their quarter-final at the Masters three months ago.

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