Higgins hopes ‘Scottish’ has now found its home
John Higgins hopes the Scottish Open can find a happy home in Edinburgh.
Snooker’s Home Nations event returns to the country at the revamped Meadowbank Centre tomorrow after a two-year hiatus.
First it was held in a bio-secure bubble in Milton Keynes, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, before it was switched to Llandudno in Wales last season because of a contractual dispute with Glasgow’s Emirates Arena.
The Meadowbank Centre had a facelift in the summer, with a magical £42-million makeover. Four-time world champion Higgins has seen the Northern Ireland Open become one of the best-supported events on the calendar since moving to the Waterfront Hall, with home favourite Mark Allen winning back-to-back titles.
And the World No. 6 is desperate for his home tournament to follow suit.
“I hope the Scottish can find its home at Meadowbank,” admitted Higgins, a three-time runner-up in the event.
“It looks amazing. They’ve obviously spent a lot of money on it.
“It would be great if that could become the Scottish Open’s home.
“It’s obviously the capital city, the same as the Northern Irish being in Belfast.
“The atmosphere when I faced Mark in the Final in 2021 was amazing. It was one of the best I’ve experienced.
“It would be great if Meadowbank could be nailed down as the constant here.
“I hope it will be a better supported event, as Edinburgh’s a great city to visit.
“If I was a fan wondering where to go to watch snooker, Edinburgh would be the ideal choice.”
The Wishaw Wizard lost in last year’s Final to Belgium’s Luca Brecel, one of five painful big final defeats last term.
Brecel, who opens his defence against Scot Fraser Patrick tomorrow, said: “I have great memories of winning the tournament last year.
“To beat John in the Final was amazing. He’s one of the alltime greats and over a best-of-17 match, he is so tough to beat.
“I lost in the UK Championship Final the week before, so I really didn’t want to lose two finals in-a-row.”
Two-time ranking-event winner, Anthony Mcgill, former World champion Graeme Dott and Perth potter, Scott Donaldson, play in the First Round tomorrow. Struggling Stephen Maguire, who plays Ashley Hugill on Wednesday, is desperate to kickstart his season on home soil. Liam Graham and Amaan Iqbal are the local wildcards. World champion and World No. 1, Ronnie O’sullivan, is among the favourites for the £80,000 top prize, alongside Mark Selby, Judd
Trump and Neil Robertson. New UK champion Allen is bidding to become only the fifth potter in history to land three straight ranking titles. Meanwhile, Higgins and Donaldson yesterday failed in their respective bids to qualify for the German Masters. Higgins was stunned 5-3 by Welsh amateur Daniel Wells to become the latest big-name casualty, whilst Donaldson lost by the same scoreline to former Scottish Open finalist Cao Yupeng.