Stephen Maguire

At the end of the season he moved from 24th to 3rd in the world rankings.

Ranked 41st in the world, he defeated Peter Ebdon and Joe Perry (both 5–4), John Higgins 5–3 and Stephen Lee 6–4 to meet Jimmy White in the final.

He then defeated White 9–3 to win the championship.

The BBC described Maguire as a "surprising winner", and he admitted to being "very surprised how badly everybody has played against me here".

Stephen Maguire (born 13 March 1981) is a Scottish professional snooker player.

Maguire turned professional in 1998 after winning the IBSF World Snooker Championship.

Maguire turned professional as a snooker player in 1998.

He qualified for the 1999 UK Championship, where he was defeated 2–9 by Mark King in the first round.

He played in qualifying for the 2000 World Championship, defeating Wayne Brown, Nick Walker and Bradley Jones to reach the final qualifying round, where he lost 9–10 to Joe Swail.

Maguire qualified again for the 2002 UK Championship, going on to defeat Fergal O'Brien 9–4 in the first round, before losing 7–9 to Ken Doherty in the second.

He has won six major ranking tournaments, including the 2004 UK Championship, and has twice since reached the finals of that event.

Two years later, Maguire reached the final of his first world ranking event, the 2004 European Open.

At the 2004 World Championship later that season, he qualified for the 32-player competition for the first time.

He lost 6–10 in the opening round to Ronnie O'Sullivan, who admitted to being impressed by Maguire's performance and tipped him to be a future world champion.

The following season at the 2004 British Open, Maguire defeated O'Sullivan 6–1 in the semi-finals to reach his second ranking event final.

This led to O'Sullivan claiming that he had "never seen anything like that on a snooker table before" and also rated Maguire as "probably the best [player] in the world at the moment".

Maguire met John Higgins in the final, but lost 6–9.

At the 2004 UK Championship, Maguire defeated Mark King, Mark Davis, Stephen Lee, Ronnie O'Sullivan and Steve Davis en route to the final, where he defeated David Gray 10–1.

Players praised the quality of play that Maguire had produced to win his first Triple Crown event.

Davis described him as "inspired", while O'Sullivan suggested that he could "rule the game for the next ten years".

He was in the top 16 of the snooker world rankings for 11 consecutive years, from 2005 to 2016, twice reaching world no. 2. He is a prolific break-builder, having compiled over 500 century breaks, including three maximums.

In the first round of the 2005 World Championship, Maguire led O'Sullivan 9–7 but lost the match 9–10.

During the 2005–06 snooker season, Maguire only reached one quarter-final, at the 2006 Malta Cup where he lost 4–5 against Ken Doherty.

He won his first-round match at the 2006 World Championship, but lost to Marco Fu 4–13 in the second round.

However, at the 2007 World Championship the following year, he defeated Joe Perry, Joe Swail and Anthony Hamilton to reach the semi-finals.

He played John Higgins and led 14–10, but lost seven out of the next eight to lose 15–17.

Maguire won the ranking Northern Ireland Trophy in November 2007, defeating Fergal O'Brien 9–5 in the final.

His second Triple Crown final came at the 2007 UK Championship.

He defeated Joe Swail, Ian McCulloch, Mark Williams and Shaun Murphy to reach the final, where he was defeated by Ronnie O'Sullivan 10–2.

He ended the 2007–08 season ranked world number two.

At the 2008 China Open, Maguire compiled his second maximum break against Ryan Day in the semi-finals.

He won the match 6–5 and then beat Murphy in the final 10–9 on a to win the title.

He reached the quarter-final stage of the 2008 World Championship, but lost in another final-frame decider (12–13) to Joe Perry.

He retained this position going into the 2009–10 season, after reaching the semi-finals of both the Shanghai Masters and the UK Championship.

Maguire began the 2009–10 season by winning the first event of the Pro Challenge Series, defeating Alan McManus 5–2 in the final.

He followed this by reaching the semi-finals at the UK Championship by defeating Michael Holt 9–6 in the first round, Stuart Bingham 9–3 in the second round, and Peter Lines 9–5 in the quarter-finals, before losing to Ding Junhui 5–9.

At the invitational Masters event in January, he beat Mark King 6–3 in the first round and Ryan Day 6–1 in the quarter-finals, but lost 3–6 in the semi-finals against Mark Selby.

He also reached the semi-final stage at the Welsh Open, beating Dominic Dale 5–4 in the first round, Barry Hawkins 5–1 in the second round, and Mark Williams 5–1 in the quarter-finals, but he lost 3–6 against defending champion Ali Carter.

Maguire made a poor start to the 2011–12 season, with first-round exits at the opening two ranking events of the year, the Australian Goldfields Open and the Shanghai Masters.

He defeated Stephen Hendry and John Higgins at the UK Championship to set up a quarter-final with world number seven Judd Trump, but lost the match 3–6.