Lethal Ronnie far too good, says Higgins
John Higgins says Ronnie O’Sullivan was“lethal”while he was scrapping about for much of the tournament, after losing their semi-final 17-11.
The Wizard of Wishaw did well to get to the latter stages of the competition at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, but was no match for the Londoner.
At 46, O’Sullivan is the oldest player to reach a Crucible final since Ray Reardon in 1982, and faced Judd Trump, who beat Mark Williams 17-16, in the final ahead of Press Sport’s deadline.
A disappointed Higgins told the BBC: “The way I was hitting the ball in the last couple of days, there was no way I was coming back there.
“Ronnie was lethal. I don’t think I could actually count, at all, if he had actually missed when he was in and about them.
“Every time he got in, he was just lethal, he was unbelievable. Me? No, I was really poor.”
Higgins explained:“The way I’ve been playing in the whole tournament there has only really been one session, maybe at the end against Noppon [Saengkham], that I actually felt good throughout the whole tournament.
“For the rest of the tournament I was just scrapping, scrapping, scrapping and against someone like Ronnie you cannot win if you’re just scrapping the balls about.
“He’s a different animal than he’s ever been on the table there. He was scrapping for everything and he never really let anything get on top of him.
“Maybe at the start of the match he did, but he fought back and he was lethal, while I wasn’t very good.”
Commenting on the two finalists, Higgins, who has lost five major finals in agonising circumstances this season, added:“I feel I am just a level below them. I have not won the big titles, but I have had some big moments.”