JOHN Higgins staged a dramatic comeback to finally see off the challenge of Jamie Cope in the second round of the Betfred.com World Championship.
Higgins came from 12-10 down to beat Cope 13-12, and at one stage was convinced he was heading out of the tournament. But after a spectator was taken ill at the start of the deciding frame, forcing the players to leave the arena for several minutes,
Higgins returned to fire in an exceptional break of 80.
He and Cope had resumed their match yesterday afternoon at 8-8, after two superb sessions, and the standard and quality remained high. "I was really proud of myself to come back from 12-10 to 12 each," said Higgins.
Higgins slumped to a 13-9 loss to Ryan Day 12 months ago at the same stage, but showed more steel this time. "I went out with a whimper and at 11-9 down it looked like I was going to be doing similar," said the Wishaw player. "But my wife sent me a few texts as if to say get my finger out, and let Jamie try to win the match, not give it to him."
Referring to the disruption, which came at a time Higgins had a pot to take charge of the final frame, the two-time former champion said: "It's very rare that you go back to your dressing room and you know you're coming out to play a pressure shot. I just had visions of 100 times potting it in my own mind. I've never done that before and I hoped it would come true and luckily for me it did."
Cope put himself one frame from victory at 12-10, but Higgins produced a stunning fightback and won three in a row to secure his place in the last eight.
But it will not be an all-Scottish quarter-final after Graeme Dott was ousted by Mark Selby by a 13-10 margin but only after the Scot made life tough for him. Selby resumed with a 10-6 lead but lost three of the first four frames last night. Dott had a chance in the 21st frame but Selby finally took it.
An 88 break from Selby made it 12-10 and, after Dott failed to make the most of a chance at the start of the 23rd frame, the match was soon over. Selby established a 47-point lead with only a possible 43 left to claim victory.
Stephen Maguire set up a clash with Neil Robertson in the last eight by beating Mark King 13-6. The pair had been tied at 5-5 earlier in the day but Maguire, who had been struggling at that point, produced some stunning snooker in the remainder of the match, including a break of 133 in frame 14. He finished with a break of 51.
Robertson demolished Ali Carter's bid for world title glory by knocking out last year's beaten finalist. The Australian surged into the quarter-finals with a 13-8 victory over the Essex cueman. Robertson developed a 9-7 lead after pinching four of Sunday's final five frames on the black, and was in no mood to permit a Carter comeback. Breaks of 89 and 59, the latter including an outrageous fluked red, gave Robertson the opening two frames of the afternoon. Carter had a run of 60 in the next frame, but there were sufficient points left for Robertson to produce another steal and win the match.
The full article contains 593 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
