STEPHEN MAGUIRE won his second ranking title of the season with a dramatic 10-9 victory over Shaun Murphy in the final of the Honghe Industrial 2008 World Snooker China Open after midnight Sunday.

Murphy battled bravely from 9-7 down to 9-9 as, for the second time in the past three stagings, the tournament went down to the last few balls.

The Beijing Students University Stadium crowd were on the edge of their seats as Maguire made a superb clearance from last red to blue to get over the winning line at 12.20 a.m. The 27-year-old from Glasgow collected the trophy and a top prize of 48,000 pounds (US$96,300).

The Scottish potter led 5-3, trailed 7-6, but kept his composure under pressure to claim his fourth ranking title of his career.

“It’s a fantastic feeling to win this title,” reflected Rotherham’s Maguire.

“I’ve been practicing really hard, but I admit in the last round there were definitely a few nerves there.

“It was a great final and I knew it was going to be tough because Shaun is such a good player, but I was happy with the way I played, especially with the way I held myself together at the end of the match.”

Maguire won the Northern Ireland Trophy earlier this season, before losing to Ronnie O’Sullivan in the U.K. Championship final in Telford.

But in his third final this season, the 26-year-old was determined not to slip up at the final hurdle.

With the victory, Maguire now joins an elite band of players who have won four or more ranking titles.

Only 11 fellow professionals have achieved that feat — Stephen Hendry, Steve Davis, O’Sullivan, John Higgins, Mark Williams, Jimmy White, John Parrott, Peter Ebdon, Ken Doherty, Ray Reardon and Stephen Lee.

Maguire’s success in the Far East also saw him emulate Australian Neil Robertson’s achievement of winning two ranking titles in the same season.

For Murphy, the world No. 3, the only consolation is that the 25-year-old has moved up to No. 1 in the provisional world rankings ahead of next month’s 888.com World Championship.

Incredibly, Murphy has reached five successive ranking event semifinals in the last five tournaments, but he was understandably disappointed to have missed out having got through to the final in Beijing.(SD-Agencies)