Maguire seals place in final
Former Crucible champion Murphy was trailing 7-1 after the first session
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Friday, 14, Dec 2007 10:21
Stephen Maguire survived a fightback from Shaun Murphy to win 9-5 and book his place in the UK Championship final.
Maguire, the UK champion in 2004, raced into a 7-1 lead after the opening session in Telford.
Murphy hit back by taking four of the first five frames to reduce his deficit to 8-5.
But the Scot held his nerve by firing a century break to seal his place in Sunday's final where he will face either Ronnie O'Sullivan or Mark Selby.
After both players traded the opening two frames, Maguire reeled off six frames in succession, including two centuries and two half-centuries.
But Murphy, the world champion in 2005, struck a superb break of 144 in the opening frame of the second session to start the comeback.
Englishman Murphy then made it 7-3 before Maguire hit back with a break of 70 to leave him one frame away from the final.
But the Scot, ranked three in the world, missed a red to allow Murphy to fire a break of 67 to reduce his deficit.
Rotherham-based Murphy fired an 80 break after the mid-session interval to make it 8-5.
Maguire then seized control of frame 14 after some fine safety shots to knock in a break of 105 to seal victory.