Higgins "killed" Ding Junhui and praised Yan Bingtao's talent; he said that O'Sullivan repeatedly lost "good dishes" in the face of his strengths in the game.
The 2021 World Snooker Crown ended the last group battle, with 45-year-old veteran John Higgins reversing Ding Junhui and sweeping O'Sullivan from the death zone to successfully catch the last train of the semi-finals. He will compete with Chinese tiger Yan Bingtao for the right to the final on Saturday. The latter has also performed well recently, picking out two consecutive Grand Slam-level players, Murphy and Selby, in the group stage.
The two have played each other twice in the last two seasons, and it was Higgins who won the final after experiencing three tiebreakers in his career debut at the Masters last season. But Higgins has already completed his revenge in the just-concluded semi-finals of the Northern Ireland Tournament.
In the two games that ended this morning, Higgins scored a single 66 points in the first set to win the first game, but then fell into a downturn in three sets to send Ding Junhui a two-shot 53+54 chance, so that he was forced to a passive situation 1-3. Thanks to Ding Junhui's leading edge, he actually made many assists and lost the key super dividend ball, although the wizard also made a mistake in and out, but still completed his self-redemption through timely remediation, and finally killed Ding Junhui 4-3 "double kill".
In the group final, Higgins met his old rival O'Sullivan again, who scored a three-shot 50+ to beat the 2005 world champion Bingham 4-2. Despite O'Sullivan's record in the crown and another victory to consolidate his position, in addition to maintaining his previous smooth offensive state in the first round, he still had many shortcomings throughout the game. And these weaknesses of his struggle with Higgins put him in a passive beating situation from the beginning.
Higgins began by shooting a single shot of 86+ 92 points to ensure the lead, and the Rockets then hit back a strong shot to break 101 points, but the fourth game that determined the direction of the game and even determined the fate was locked by the Wizards in the black war. With a 3-1 lead back to the second half after a break, Higgins finally regained his senses and increased his offensive fire, scoring 127, 94 and 63 consecutive points to win three consecutive sets, plus a total of 4 consecutive innings before the break, 6-1 to win last year's World Championship champion O'Sullivan to reach the top four of the championship.
After the match, Higgins talked about the outlook for both matches and the semi-finals. He said he didn't waste his chances after taking a 3-1 lead, nor did he give the Rockets much chance; instead, the Rockets lost a few red balls that he shouldn't have conceded. Speaking of Yan Bingtao, Higgins called him a talented genius and a young champion, hoping that he could dedicate a wonderful duel with him.