World Snooker Championship 2024: Stephen Maguire defeats Shaun Murphy in the last 16

Stephen Maguire is through to his eighth world championship quarter-final after seeing off former champion Shaun Murphy 13-9 in the last 16 on Sunday morning in Sheffield.

World number 28 Maguire has slipped outside of the sport’s elite top 16 bracket in recent times; last year he failed to qualify for the Crucible for the first time since 2003. However, the 43-year-old qualifier is making up for lost time in 2024 having eliminated two seed players in consecutive rounds to make the last eight for the fourth time in just eight installments.

Maguire and Murphy played each other in the first round here two years ago, with the former coming through a 10-8 victor. In their latest meeting on snooker’s grandest stage - which took place across three days - Maguire claimed the final two frames of the first session to lead 5-3 and open a gap. He would keep his opponent at arm’s length for the remainder of the tie.

In a second session where both players showed emotion after winning a close frame, Maguire again finished on a high by securing the final two frames to win the session and extend his buffer at 10-6 overnight. In frame 16, the Scot recovered from more than 60 points down to eventually nab it on the final pink.

Returning Sunday morning for a scheduled conclusion, Murphy battled admirably - briefly threatening a big comeback when he won two successive frames from 12-7 down - but Maguire quashed any such notion, finishing in style with a 127; the highest break of the contest. During the match, the former UK champion registered seven other runs of 50 or above.

Maguire will face fellow qualifier David Gilbert in the quarter-finals on Tuesday with a place in the one-table environment up for grabs. The second and latest time Maguire reached the world championship semi-finals was in 2012.

Speaking to BBC Sport following his victory, Maguire said: “That’s a good win. Two wins at the qualifiers and two good wins here. Some good results happening.”

Throughout the season, Maguire has shown signs of a return to form having appeared in two previous ranking event quarter-finals. He was also the player to end Judd Trump’s 22-match winning streak during the International Championship in November.