Higgins remains in touch

Tournament’s highest break mixed with struggles for Scot

John Higgins has a battle on his hands when his World Snooker Championship semi-final with David Gilbert resumes today at the Crucible.

The Scot trails 13-11 in their best-of-33 frames encounter after a mixed day for the four-time champion.

Gilbert punished the Scot for a series of uncharacteristic errors in the morning session as he turned a 5-3 overnight advantage into a 10-6 lead.

Yet the 33-year-old may still be left feeling he missed a chance due to a performance by Higgins which BBC commentator John Virgo described as “one of the worst in all his years of coming here”.

The evening session opened with a bizarre incident when the referee ordered a member of the audience to leave for apparently shouting something following the initial break-off shot.

Underdog Gilbert once again showed few signs of nerves as he extended his lead to five frames by taking the opener with a break of 72 but Higgins, who still seemed far from top form, pulled one back after a lengthy safety battle, and after Gilbert won the next with a 75, the Scot brilliantly cleared the colours to reduce the deficit to 12-8.

Higgins then seemed to click into form and he put together a 143 break, the highest of the tournament.

The world number 16 responded again to go four clear but Higgins showed all his battling qualities to take the final two frames of the day.

In the afternoon session Judd Trump recovered from falling 6-5 behind to take a 9-7 semi-final lead over Gary Wilson as he pursues a first Crucible final since 2011.

Two half-century breaks had put Wilson 6-4 in front, before a 73 break saw Trump take three frames in a row, including the 13th with a break of 123, leaving Wilson with only a single point from the previous three.

After Trump’s fourth frame win in succession, Wilson produced a 77 break to reduce the deficit to two ahead of today’s session, which begins at 10am.

David Gilbert: might feel he missed chance to pull away.