John Higgins booked his place in the second round of the Embassy World Championships with a convincing 10-4 victory over fellow Scot Graeme Dott in Sheffield today. Higgins produced a spectacular afternoon of snooker to earn a clash with either Marco Fu or Chris Small.
On current form Higgins is a leading contender for the title as he followed up last night’s 139 break - the highest of the tournament so far - with a 136 today. Higgins, who has been a Sheffield semi-finalist for the last four years, insisted afterwards: “I'm delighted to have won because Graeme is a very tough player. I got a good lead and just tried to forget about the scoreline and concentrate on getting the better of each session. I really enjoy it here and when I'm in the balls I always feel like I can score very heavily. I had a couple of lapses and if they had not happened I could have made two or three more centuries.”
The 25-year-old must wait until late tonight to discover his second-round opponent as Fu and Small have to return for a third session to resolve their tussle. The duo, level at 4-4 heading into what should have been their deciding stint, emerged from the arena still locked together at 8-8 and could find themselves battling it out into the early hours.
Northern Ireland’s Joe Swail holds a comfortable 6-3 lead over world number 99 Sean Storey, and should earn himself a clash with Mark Williams in round two. Fifth seed Stephen Lee raced 4-0 ahead of 1995 runner-up Nigel Bond, although the interval clearly did the world number 23 from Derbyshire some good as he opened his account in the first frame after the break.
Filed by Shane Murray
