Higgins digs in for overnight cushion
SNOOKER SPECIAL
JOHN HIGGINS is well on course to book a spot in the second round of the Betfred World Championships after finishing his first session 7-2 up against Martin Gould.
Should he go on to win he would face Mark Allen after the Northern Irishman beat Jimmy Robertson 10-8 in a tense encounter last night.
Higgins, a four-time Crucible champion, resumes against Gould on this morning.
Higgins’ last world title was in 2011 when he defeated Judd Trump in the final. He was beaten at the quarter-final stage by fellow Scot Alan McManus last year.
He arrives in Sheffield full of confidence after enjoying a successful season to date, winning the China Championship and the Champion of Champions event in Coventry.
The Wizard of Wishaw looked extremely comfortable in his 22nd appearance at the Crucible and struck a half century in each of the first three frames to take an early 3-0 lead. Gould failed to take his chances and Higgins punished the Englishman, moving 4-0 ahead at the mid-session interval with a break of 76.
His advantage was five frames before Gould finally managed to get on the scoreboard but Higgins replied instantly with a break of 90, his highest of the match.
Gould struck the only century of the match in frame eight but Higgins closed out the first session expertly to take a 7-2 lead.
Elsewhere, 2005 Crucible winner Shaun Murphy admitted he felt under extreme pressure as 17-year-old Yan Bingtao ran him all the way before the fifth seed eventually progressed 10-8.
Murphy is no stranger to snooker’s most prestigious venue but came close to letting a 9-5 lead slip before booking a second round encounter with Ronnie O’Sullivan.
“It’s very hard to stand and pot those balls when you can’t stand still, when body parts are moving that you didn’t know you had. This place does very funny things,” he said.
“I was bang under it. But for the fluked red and the decent clearance after it, there probably would have been a decider and then it’s a toss of a coin.
“You wouldn’t feel pressure like that in any other tournament, for 11 months of the year, it’s mad.”
Stuart Bingham will face Kyren Wilson in the second round after seeing off Peter Ebdon 10-5 in the morning session, but knows improvements will be necessary against the 14th-seed.
“Even from the first ball to the last I improved my game, I felt like I was getting stronger as it was going on. I will need to improve to go any further,” he said.
“It was very tough, Peter is a great player, a great champion, and I’m over the moon to have beaten him 10-5, although it didn’t feel that way.
“I made some important clearances. It seems like every frame is a hard graft, you are trying to get a rhythm and it’s tough against Pete because he’s so determined.”
Marco Fu launched a re- markable recovery from 7-2 down to get back to 9-9 against young Belgian Luca Brecel at time of going to press.
The best of 19 first round match was due to reach its conclusion on Monday night with the winner playing Aussie potter Neil Robertson or Noppon Saengkham.
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