HE was once the future of snooker and the heir to Stephen Hendry’s throne.
But Stephen Maguire admits he is simply not good enough anymore after a painful first-round defeat to Ronnie O’Sullivan at the Betfred World Snooker Championship.
Glasgow’s Maguire, a former UK Champion, is renowned as one of the most talented players on tour but his trophy cabinet is not as bulging as perhaps it should be.
This year he has fallen outside of the top 16 in the world and had to qualify just to reach the Crucible Theatre.
A first-round draw with five-time winner O’Sullivan is as tough as it gets but Maguire took advantage of the under-par Rocket to move 6-3 ahead on Saturday night.
But where O’Sullivan raised his game yesterday morning, Maguire could not – and the right-hander believes his days at the top are over.
“I have accepted now that I will be qualifying here,” he said. “I might get lucky one year and be a seed, but the odds are I will be floating about the top 32 for the next few years without breaking into the top 16.
“I have to get on with it and accept the fact these boys are a step better than me really. It is hard but it is accepted.
“I think they have improved whereas I have just stayed the same. I don’t think I have declined, I just think these boys play the game now that when they play well they are awesome and I don’t have that. I need the top players to have an off day and me to be really good to go deep in a tournament.”
O’Sullivan punished Maguire’s mistakes on Sunday but the 37-year-old had his chances but just could not take them. He led 4-0 and then 6-3 in the first session against an out-of-sorts O’Sullivan but the Rocket was not going to disappoint again.
The 11th frame proved key, with Maguire missing a simple red when on 49 and O’Sullivan replied with a frame-winning 86.
He clinched the next on the pink before the pair traded frames. But Maguire was far from settled and a badly-judged blue missed its target, allowing O’Sullivan to take the lead.
From there, the outcome was inevitable and O’Sullivan raced away to win.
“The hunger is there, I will fight to the death. I just have to look at the results, there is no finals from me,” Maguire added.
“I still enjoy it. I will go home, regroup and then go again.”
“I think it is a fair result, I think I only had the lead overnight because he was so bad in the first session.
“I was under no illusions that I was playing well enough to be 6-3 up, so
I was not surprised when he came out and improved. I knew he would.
“I could have won the match in the first session, I really could have done. I should have gone 5-0 up but lost it and then he went nuts for a couple of frames and got himself back in it.
“Once it went 6-3, I was happy but I think he would have been delighted. I could see he had stepped up overnight and I never had it to fightback.”
O’Sullivan admitted he was awful in the first session of their match and wanted to repay the fans who had shelled out to watch him.
“It was so embarrassing in that first session, I felt like giving the people all their money back,” he said.
“I was really gutted because they took a Saturday afternoon to watch some snooker and thank god Stephen potted some balls.
“I have been playing like that for a while in practice. You just want to battle though and I feel very lucky to be in the next round now.”
Elsewhere, former champion Graeme Dott chucked away a 6-3 lead in his first-round match with Ali Carter, going down 10-8.
Dott, who lifted the title in 2006, was seemingly in control at the half-way stage but he failed to kick on and Carter battled through to a second-round match against O’Sullivan.
The Larkhall ace had to qualify for the tournament this year and looked sharp in the first session, whereas Carter appeared undercooked.
But it was Dott who was caught cold, missing simple chances and unable to keep the ball safe.
“I don’t think it was a massive shock, I was rubbish all the way through,” Dott admitted.
Watch the snooker World Championship LIVE on Eurosport and Eurosport Player with Colin Murray and analysis from Ronnie O’Sullivan, Jimmy White and Neal Foulds
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