STEPHEN MAGUIRE looks poised to realise the potential he showed when bursting on to the snooker scene three years ago as he closes in on his first 888.com World Championship final.
The 26-year-old was today needing to win only three of the remaining nine frames of his semi-final encounter with fellow Scot John Higgins later today after opening up a 14-10 lead.
Maguire took an iron grip on the best-of-33 encounter in the thi
rd session last night when he won six of the eight frames at the expense of 1998 champion Higgins.
A superb 131 clearance plus four other half-century breaks allowed Maguire to dominate proceedings - and he even came out on top in the marathon 20th frame which spanned 51 minutes.
Higgins did respond with his own clearance of 134 but generally he was second best and will have to show all his fighting qualities to retrieve his current situation
Maguire is aiming to become the fifth Scot to win snooker's most coveted prize after Walter Donaldson, Stephen Hendry, Higgins and Graeme Dott.
He won the 2004 UK Championship, demolishing David Gray 10-1 in the final, and that was supposed to be the launchpad for a successful career.
But the Milton-based player has generally struggled since then - until now - and Maguire demonstrated tremendous long potting and some excellent break building to leave Higgins with a mountain to climb.
Meanwhile, qualifier Mark Selby went into today's double session still dreaming of reaching his first world final after hitting back to level at 8-8 with 2005 champion Shaun Murphy.
Selby suffered with nerves in the opening session of the one-table format and was 5-1 in arrears at one stage.
But the 23-year-old was in a far more composed and confident vein in the second session.
The Leicester potter won three of the four frames before the interval to level the match at 6-6 and also shared the final four to set up a thrilling finale.
A superb 128 total clearance by Selby in frame 13 was the highlight of the session.
He is hoping to join Terry Griffiths (1979) and Murphy (2005) in becoming only the third qualifier to contest a world final.
Members of the Snooker Writers Association have already voted Selby's performance in reaching the last four for the first time the most meritorious achievement of the tournament.
The full article contains 413 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
