Stephen Maguire Wins 2019 Six Red World Championship

Stephen Maguire has won the 2019 Six Red World Championship after an 8-6 victory over John Higgins on Saturday in Thailand.

An absorbing contest ebbed one way and then the other before Maguire edged the all-Scottish battle to claim a second world crown in the short format.

The final showdown pitted two players who had only recently teamed up for their home nation to capture the Snooker World Cup for the first time.

Close friends off the table, the contest was played in a good spirit in front of a packed house at the BCC Hall in Bangkok.

The audience was treated to a memorable encounter too, a fast-paced and entertaining affair that encapsulated the original purpose behind launching the six reds game.

Maguire, who first claimed glory five years ago when he pipped Ricky Walden to glory in a decider, got off to a perfect start by taking the first three frames of the 2019 Six Red World Championship final.

Back came Higgins in trademark fashion, though, with the 44 year-old picking up four frames on the spin to lead for what transpired to be the only time throughout the match.

Maguire steadied the ship to draw level again and pinched a vital ninth frame on the black after Higgins missed a routine pink off the spot.

The former comfortably notched up another frame and appeared set to regain his three-frame advantage only to botch a guilt-edged opportunity with a missed straight red to the middle bag.

Higgins capitalised with a clearance to pull back to within one and was quickly level with the final’s highest break, a cool 58 to restore parity at 6-6.

At this point, it looked as if the four-time world snooker champion was in the ascendancy but an outrageous pot on the opening red from Maguire in the penultimate frame helped him to a 39 break that took him one frame away from the trophy.

A tense and dramatic frame ensued in which both competitors had opportunities, but Maguire held himself together to get over the winning line after an engrossing duel.

It marks Maguire’s first individual title since that triumph in 2014 and with it the Glaswegian pockets a hefty winner’s cheque worth just shy of £110,000.

While some people may argue that the six reds doesn’t mean as much, there’s no doubting the fact that winning breeds confidence.

Maguire will head to China next week for the lucrative Shanghai Masters brimming with renewed vigour in his game and, indeed, will be looking forward to the rest of the season knowing he has already topped the podium twice so far this term.

For Higgins, the defeat represents a familiar feeling at this stage of a world final, having also lost the past three World Snooker Championship title deciders at the Crucible in Sheffield.

The 2019 Six Red World Championship was a success overall, with decent crowds throughout the week and a terrific atmosphere inside the arena for the final.

Maguire certainly has a soft spot for the tournament and becomes only the second player after Mark Davis to become a multiple six reds world champion.