Stephen Maguire was not at his best but still thrashed Ryan Day 6-1 to reach the semi-finals of the Masters at Wembley Arena.
Scotsman cashes in on out-of-sorts Day to make Masters semis
Stephen Maguire was not at his best but still thrashed Ryan Day 6-1 to reach the semi-finals of the Masters at Wembley Arena.
Day could never get his game going as the Welshman continually wasted every chance he was given and Maguire benefited by taking frame after frame.
After hammering Joe Perry 6-0 in his first match of the event, Day was on the wrong end of a comprehensive scoreline in the quarter-finals against Maguire.
It may have been a different story had Day not missed frame ball in the fourth when in with a great chance of going into the mid-session interval level at 2-2.
Trailing the Scotsman 2-1, Day opened up a 26-point lead with just the colours left on the table, but he hit the jaws with the yellow that was frame ball and Maguire took full advantage when clearing the colours to nick the frame.
The same pattern repeated itself after the break, as Day ground to a halt on a break of 44 in the sixth frame and a break of 62 to the pink allowed Maguire to move within one frame of victory.
And a run of 61 sealed a similar seventh frame, and victory, for Maguire - who will now face the winner of the later clash between Mark Selby and Mark Allen in the last four.
"The first session was getting to the point of being embarrassing - maybe if one guy knocked in a hundred it might have spurred the other one on, but it was awful," said the Scot.
"It shouldn't be like that, (if one player misses) the other guy should just pounce.
"I've won two matches without playing well - I could have been out in the first round and I could have been out there. The first priority is to get through the match, you can always improve in the next match, and I'm just hoping tomorrow (I do)."
