In the early morning of December 13, Beijing time, the Scottish Open of the World Snooker Tour decided the final champion. Following the last British Championship, Belgian famous Brechel, who reached the final back-to-back, performed well in the final, defeating the local star "Wizard" Higgins 9-5 in a big score, after winning the 2017 Chinese Championship, he won the second ranking championship of his career, and with a championship prize of 70,000 pounds, he raised his world ranking to the top 16, ranking 15th. Higgins, following the Northern Ireland Open, the English Open and the Crown Title, has reached the final four times this season and finished runners-up four times, which is quite sad.
Just a week ago, at the British Championship, Brechel performed well and reached the final in one fell swoop, but encountered Chinese supernova Zhao Xintong, and finally lost 5-10 and won the runner-up. The excellent feel allowed him to continue to shine in the Scottish Open that followed, once again beating strong opponents, reaching the final, and achieving back-to-back promotion to the final of the ranking competition. His opponent was the seasoned Higgins, while the Scottish Open final was his fourth major tournament of the season, having lost three times to Mark Allen, Robertson and Trump. This time, Higgins was expecting to be able to break the spell.
Before this battle, Brechel had played higgins 5 times, but he was behind with 1 win and 4 losses, so he did not have much advantage in terms of past records. But the game is full of unknowns, anything is possible. In the first eight innings of the first stage of the two, Brechel performed well, scoring a hundred and 2 par 60+ to take a 6-2 lead, gaining a great advantage, and the championship was almost at hand.
As soon as the second stage came up, Brechel scored two more high scores, a single 79 points and a single 64 points, directly taking an 8-2 lead, holding six match points. In desperation, Higgins took advantage of Brechel's mistake to chase two consecutive sets to 4-8 into the halftime break. After restarting, Brechel continued to attack, giving Higgins a missed opportunity, Higgins single shot 53 points after the interruption, Brechel used a one-shot with defense, successfully did snooker defense. Higgins was awarded four points for a mistake, and Brechel scored 17 points on offense before moving on to a defensive battle. Brechel's adventurous offense missed a chance, and Higgins completed the run and chased another set to trail 5-8.
In the 14th set, Higgins played with a defensive line error, leaving a chance, Brechel won the second shot of the game to break the hundred, single shot 127 points cleared the table, and finally ended the suspense of the game 9-5, won his second ranking championship, and lifted the "Stephen Hendry Cup" of the Scottish Open. Higgins regretted four consecutive single-season finishes.