John Higgins has ended Ken Doherty's fine run in the Champions Cup in Brighton, beating him 5-2 in the semi-finals. This is the first time in Higgins career that he has reached the final of this event and the 26-year-old Scot faces either world number one Mark Williams or Peter Ebdon in Sunday's best-of-13-frames climax with £100,000 up for grabs.
"I had the run of the balls today and that's what got me my victory," admitted Higgins afterwards. The Scot built up a 3-1 lead with breaks of 80, 56, 57 and 59. However, Doherty had the opportunity to pull back to 3-4 but when he potted the blue, he also knocked in a red, allowing Higgins to return to the table and complete a match-winning clearance of 48.
"It's disappointing things didn't go my way," said Doherty, holder of the Welsh Open and Thailand Masters titles. "But John played well and he was better than me on the day. However, I can't be too downhearted because I've won some good matches this week."
"Usually I'm a slow starter and I normally need a few tournaments to get my eye in," said Higgins, who actually lost his final Group B match to Stephen Hendry last night. "But you've got to play well in this event to get through to the final because of the calibre of players involved and because it's such a big prize fund it makes it extra tense."
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
