Higgins has high hopes after securing second-round spot

John Higgins is confident that his free-flowing snooker could be just around the corner after edging his way to the Dafabet Northern Ireland second round in Belfast yesterday.

The Wizard of Wishaw struggled at times during his 4-2 victory against Nigel Bond, with both a long way from their bests in a scrappy contest.

But for Higgins, Shanghai Masters semi-finalist last week, there was little complaint with how the win came about ahead of a second-round contest with Hossein Vafaei.

“It was a difficult game, I never really got any rhythm and Nigel struggled, too – he probably played too slowly for himself and I can’t recall him ever being like that,” he said.

“My game was a little

“A very attacking player so I’m looking forward to that match”

bit edgy and I missed a few, but a win’s a win and now you just get ready for the next match. It will be a different match entirely next as Hossein is a very, very attacking player so I’m looking forward to that match.

“There can be times where you get focused, but today I was a little bit all over the place and I don’t really know why, but that can happen sometimes.”

Also through to Wednes- day’s second round is Stephen Maguire, hitting his stride from the very first frame to whitewash Basem Eltahhan 4-0.

Breaks of 129 and 138 did the damage as Maguire galloped to the winning post, with Gary Wilson next up.

Graeme Dott missed out 4-3 to Zhou Yuelong, while Alan McManus also suffered a surprise defeat, 4-1 at the hands of Yuan Sijun. There was also disappointment for Scott Donaldson, the third Scot in the day to miss out to Chinese opposition with Wang Yuchen ending his week in Belfast. l Watch the Northern Ireland Open live on Eurosport, Eurosport Player and Quest with Colin Murray and daily studio analysis with Neal Foulds.