Maguire's first event of 2010 was the Masters. He beat Mark King 6–3 in the first round and Ryan Day 6–1 in the quarter-finals, but lost 3–6 in the semi-finals against Mark Selby. Maguire then reached the semi-finals of the Welsh Open. He defeated Dominic Dale 5–4 in the first round, Barry Hawkins 5–1 in the second round and Mark Williams 5–1 in the quarter-finals, but he lost 3–6 against defending champion Ali Carter. He won his opening matches at the last two ranking tournament, the China Open and World Championship, but lost in the second round against Mark Allen 3–5 and Graeme Dott 6–13 respectively. Maguire had a relatively quiet season, but he did reach the final of the Welsh Open where he led John Higgins 5–2 before being defeated 9–6. However, he followed this up by losing in the first round of the World Championship for the first time since 2005, as he was defeated by qualifier Barry Hawkins 10–9. Maguire's season started poorly with first round exits at the opening two ranking events of the year, the Australian Goldfields Open and the Shanghai Masters. At the UK Championships he defeated Stephen Hendry and John Higgins to set up a quarter-final with world number seven Judd Trump, which Maguire lost 6–3. He made three century during the tournament, including a 144, which was the highest of the event. He won his first tournament carrying ranking points for almost four years in January 2012 at PTC Event 12 in Germany. He beat Joe Perry 4–2 in the final and stated afterwards that he hadn't practiced at all over the Christmas period. The result meant that he finished eighth in the Order of Merit and therefore qualified for the 2012 Finals. He couldn't carry his form into the following weeks Masters tournament however, as he exited the event in the first round for the second successive year following a 4–6 defeat to Mark Williams. Maguire reached the final in the German Masters, whitewashing John Higgins and Shaun Murphy en route. In the final he lost 7–9 against Ronnie O'Sullivan, despite making 3 consecutive centuries in frames 2 - 4 (becoming one of only a handful of players to have achieved this) in a high scoring match which featured 4 centuries in the opening four frames. At the aforementioned PTC Finals Maguire was whitewashed in the last 4 by Neil Robertson 0–4.