Omens are good for Higgins as place in the quarter-final looms
RECENT history shows that when John Higgins reaches the quarter-finals of the Betfred World Snooker Championship, he invariably wins it.
So the rest of the competition will be sitting up and taking notice after the Wishaw potter put himself in prime position to qualify for the last-eight by establishing a 10-6 lead over Ricky Walden in their second-round clash on Sunday afternoon.
Higgins is a four-time world champion and on the last three occasions he has reached the quarter-finals at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre – in 2007, 2009 and 2011 – he has gone on to lift the trophy.
You have to go all the way back to 2003 to find the Scot failing to convert a last-eight appearance into a World Championship triumph and, after dominating Englishman Walden so far in their best-of-25 encounter, it looks like he will have a chance to put that record to the test this year.
Higgins headed into Sunday’s session with the 5-3 advantage he earned on Saturday and laid down an early marker by reeling off the first two frames, including an impressive 90 break, to establish a four-frame lead and wrest the initiative.
The Englishman kept himself in the contest by staging a mini-revival before the mid-session interval to make it 7-5 but Higgins came out refreshed after the 15-minute rest and restored his fourframe lead with the combination of canny break-building and gritty matchplay that has long been his trademark.
The 40-year-old was pegged back slightly when a classy break of 74 narrowed the gap to 9-6 but he ended the session on a high by grinding out the half-hour 16th frame to leave his 33-yearold opponent a gargantuan task at 10-6 down.
With this year’s tournament appearing to be wide open, the Scot will fancy his chances of equalling great rival Ronnie O’Sullivan with a fifth victory in snooker’s showpiece event.
Meanwhile, the Crucible Theatre crowd are unlikely to be treated to a higher-quality session of snooker at this year’s World Championship than they experienced on the other side of the partition on Sunday afternoon.
O’Sullivan and Barry Hawkins almost resembled heavyweight boxers as they traded a series of big blows in the form of ever-more impressive breaks to leave their second-round clash finely poised at 9-7 to Hawkins heading into Monday’s final session. Traditionally O’Sullivan has dominated Hawkins, with ten wins from their 11 matches – the lone loss coming in their first-ever meeting back in 2002 – yet the world No.11 had shown enough in Saturday afternoon’s first session to lead 5-3 and serve warning that he was determined to push the crowd favourite all the way.
The Rocket made a fluent 68 in the opening frame on Sunday but broke down, enabling Hawkins to pinch it on the black and take a 6-3 lead.
It is telling that, in 14 years of facing O’Sullivan, that moment was the first time Hawkins had ever held a threeframe advantage but five-time world champion brushed off any ill-effects in the next with a majestic 118 break to narrow the deficit to 6-4.
That proved to be a starting gun for a period of relentless scoring as Hawkins won frame 11 with a 74 break, only for O’Sullivan to respond with an 82 in the next before Hawkins posted a 65 to clinch frame 13 and his opponent’s 89 was more than enough to take the 14th to once again narrow the deficit to just two frames.
The duo then split the final two to leave O’Sullivan 9-7 behind and in genuine danger of failing to reach the World Championship quarter-finals for just the second time in 12 years unless he can produce some more of his backto-the-wall magic.
Fans can watch the World Championship LIVE on Eurosport, with Colin Murray and analysis from Jimmy White and Ronnie O’Sullivan.
Champions Newtonmore forced their way back to the top of the Premiership on Saturday and could be set to welcome back inspirational Jamie Robinson.
However, their 100 per cent record in all competitions has left the international midfielder pondering whether or not he can win his place back in the team.
That dilemma was further highlighted on Saturday as the Eilan side saw off Camanachd Cup winners, Lovat, 4-0.
Jamie’s cousin, Iain, scored twice; following on from his early season hat trick and looks to be the discovery of the campaign after making his debut in the last match of 2015 against Oban.
“He’s a class act,” said Jamie, who is now knocking on the door after hernia surgery. “He certainly knows his way to goal [and] the team is playing really well.”
Kyles went second after beating Skye thanks to two goals in the last 10 minutes, to give the Premiership a familiar look.
Nick Percy broke the Scottish discus for the second time in a fortnight at a college meeting in Kansas with the 21-year-old throwing 60.52 metres to add three centimetres to the mark he set in Nebraska earlier this month.
Barclays Premier League, Tottenham v West Brom - Sky Sports 1 1900; Primera Division, Celta Vigo v Granada - Sky Sports 3 1925.
World Championship - BBC Two 1300 and 1900, Eurosport 1 1300 and 1830, Eurosport 2 1300 and 1900. Cricket Indian Premier League, Kings XI Punjab v Mumbai Indians - Sky Sports 2 1500.
ATP, Estoril Open - Eurosport 2 1600.
Tour of Turkey - Eurosport
2 1100.
MLB, Texas Rangers v New York Yankees - BT Sport// ESPN 0100 (Tue).
NBA play-offs, Oklahoma City Thunder v Dallas Mavericks - BT Sport 1 0100 (Tue).