and 32nd of his career, was in sublime form 24 hours earlier as he fired in four century breaks in a 5-0 victory over Xiao Guodong but on this occasion he had to show fighting spirit to deny his Scottish opponent.

Maguire opened the match with a fine break of 103 before opening up leads of 3-1 and 4-2 only for O'Sullivan to suddenly find another gear which helped him take the next four frames on the spin.

The first three of those were thanks to successive breaks of 72, 83 and 128 before the five-time world champion finished the job comfortably enough in the 10th frame to book a spot in Sunday's two session final at the Guild Hall.