World Snooker: Highly Consistent Higgins Through to Round Two

Apr 21, 2011
Jamie Clark

John Higgins has lifted the World Snooker Championship on three previous occasions - Benwbmc

A comfortable 10-5 victory over the resurgent Stephen Lee sees three-time former world champion John Higgins through the opening phase to play Rory McLeod

John Higgins 10-5 Stephen Lee

Report

A 6-3 deficit from the first session proved to be insurmountable for the Trowbridge player who beat living legend Steve Davis in the qualifying round to make it to the Crucible. The Wizard of Wishaw booked his place in the second round in 4 hours 20 minutes with a relentless display.

With Lee spurning numerous chances in the first nine frames, Higgins punished this profligacy to maximum effect taking five in a row notching successive centuries after his opponent won the opener.

Davis’s conqueror rallied to stop the Wizard from riding out of sight, reducing his arrears to 5-3. In the last before the end of the session the opportunity to be just one behind passed him by, Higgins again making a ton. With a lead of three frames going into this evening, the match had a very different complexion for Stephen Lee.

Higgins resumed where he left off, making a 124 clearance to extend his advantage over the man from Trowbridge. A scrappier eleventh frame followed; Lee again failed to score anything substantial and the Wizard of Wishaw edged it to go 8-3 ahead. It was the underdog’s turn to make a century and he won the next to again reduce the deficit to three.

A knock of 74 in the fourteenth put Higgins within touching distance of round two. A safety battle ensued in the next, with Lee shading that but again registering next to nothing. Pressured into a risky brown by the scoreline, it proved to be his last shot in this year’s World Snooker Championship. The Wizard of Wishaw made an unassailable 81 break to see out the match a comfortable winner.

Analysis

Rory McLeod will be another adversary that won’t be expected to cause the three time former champion any problems, prospectively setting up a real treat in the quarter finals against Ronnie O’Sullivan. Higgins seems to have used the adversity of his six-month ban for alleged match-fixing and the recent death of his father as fuel to mount a serious challenge. Since coming back from that suspension the Scotsman has won both the UK Championship and the Welsh open, accolades that have seen him regain the number one spot in the world rankings.

Lee scored barely more than half of Higgins’s points total in this match, but he gave a good account of himself. His own career has been on the up after dwindling for so long. Commentators who suggested this first round match might have been tricky for the Wizard of Wishaw were perhaps a little misguided though, as he remains the bookmakers favourite to lift the title for a fourth time. The winner of the tournament for them shall come from that potential quarter final with the Rocket