Ruthless Higgins whitewashes O’sullivan to book place in Scottish Open semi-finals
John Higgins ruthlessly ended Ronnie O’sullivan’s hopes of winning the Scottish Open with an accomplished display in Glasgow. Higgins punished O’sullivan’s mistakes to run out a 5-0 winner and book his place in the semi-finals.
O’sullivan missed a red to the corner in the opening frame and watched as Higgins produced a break of 55 to win it – and the Scot went from strength to strength.
After both players wasted chances early in the second frame, Higgins took control of it with a break of 109, then capitalised on a poor break from his opponent to go 3-0 up with a knock of 117.
Therocketthenmissedared into the middle and Higgins took advantage with a clearance of 105 to make it 4-0 at the mid-session interval.
When the players returned it did not take long for Wishaw’s Higgins to wrap up the win, finishing off with a break of 72.
He will play Neil Robertson for a place in the final, after the Australian edged out Xiao Guodong 5-4.
Breaks of 114, 128 and 118 helped Robertson turn a 2-1 deficit into a 4-3 lead and although his Chinese opponent responded with a run of 73 to take the contest to a decider, the Victorian then rallied with a break of 79 to win it.
Stephen Maguire was left to rue a match that went wrong as he crashed out, losing 5-2 to world No 3 Judd Trump.
Trump was the favourite going into the match against the Glaswegian and backed up that view with a quick start, surging into a two-frame lead with some excellent cueing.
Maguire responded, bringing the score back to 2-1 before Trump took over once again, justifying his position as a top-five player with plenty of aggressive shots.
The Scot rejected the notion that reaching the quarter-finals was a good result for him, and felt his opponent benefitted from a lucky day on the baize.
“It was a strange game,” said Maguire. “It can be cruel at times and that was one match where everything I did went wrong.”