Maguire and Higgins all square

Snooker : Stephen Maguire and fellow Scot John Higgins shared the opening eight frames in the best-of-33 semi-final in the World…

Snooker: Stephen Maguire and fellow Scot John Higgins shared the opening eight frames in the best-of-33 semi-final in the World Championship in Sheffield.

Maguire dominated the early part of the session and led 3-1 at the interval but the trend was reversed when the players returned to the table.

Higgins was favourite with the bookmakers to triumph against Maguire. But the 26-year-old burst on to the snooker scene three years ago when he won the 2004 UK Championships and has given every indication in this tournament he is back to his best.

The other semi-final is between 2005 champion Shaun Murphy and Mark Selby. Selby will be looking to emulate the achievement of Murphy who was the last qualifier to reach the final two years ago when ranked 48th in the world.

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Selby currently has a world ranking of 28 but had already climbed to a provisional 22 before the tournament had got under way.