Ananova:

Stephen Maguire spoiled the Jimmy White party in Malta when he opened a 7-1 lead over the Whirlwind in the first session of the European Open final.

White, 41, was looking to capture his first world-ranking tournament since winning the 1992 UK Championship.

But Maguire, appearing in his first final, unleashed a devastating volley of high scoring to move to within two frames of victory and the £48,000 winner's cheque.

Maguire, the world number 41 from Glasgow, is 23 later this month but had every reason for an early celebration when he fired in breaks of 96, 74 and 137 to build a 3-0 lead.

He increased his advantage to 4-0 before going five frames clear with a run of 103. Maguire pulled away to 6-0 after White was called for three successive misses.

The younger player had been lucky to leave the cue ball in the jaws of a corner pocket. Rather than roll to the five remaining reds, and therefore almost certainly leave one on, White twice attempted to hit them off the side cushion.

After twice failing, the people's champion was informed by referee Jan Verhaas that he must make contact a third time or face losing the frame under snooker's 'three misses and you're out' rule.

White chose to play the slow roll but missed again and faced the prospect of suffering only the second whitewash in a ranking event final 15 years after Steve Davis beat Dean Reynolds 10-0 to win the 1989 Grand Prix at Reading.

However White finally stopped the rot by claiming the seventh on the black, although Maguire would have won it had he completed an audacious pot by sending the cue ball the full length of the table, off the top cushion, and back towards a centre pocket where the black was hanging in the jaws.

White looked set to reduce his arrears to 6-2 in the last of the afternoon but missed a red leading 50-0 and Maguire cleared to the pink with 62.

White was appearing in his 23rd ranking event final, and his first since finishing runner-up in the 2000 British Open, and was attempting to win his 10th title.

Maguire endured a tricky path to the final, beating Peter Ebdon 5-4, Joe Perry 5-4, John Higgins 5-3 and Stephen Lee 6-4.

Victory would mean he becomes only the fifth Scot, after Stephen Hendry, Higgins, Alan McManus and Chris Small, to win a ranking title.

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