Higgins holds top-16 hopes: Jones still wants to beat me at 5-9 because he just overturned Robertson, and Jr. has four straight whips
John Higgins reached the round of 16 for a record 29th year, and in the first round of the World Championship, he retained his hopes of remaining elite with a hard-fought 10-6 victory over Jamie Jones.
Higgins broke into the top 16 for the first time at the end of the 94/95 season and, incredibly, has been in that form ever since. But after two tough years, he could retire at the end of this tournament. After knocking out Jones, he must also win one more match to have a chance of maintaining a top-16 spot, while the 48-year-old Scotsman faces a tough test against world No. 3 Mark Allen in 25 innings on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The pair have met five times this season, with Allen winning three of them.
This result means that the record for the most seeds dropped in the first round – eight – has been tied but not broken.
Higgins led 5-4 in the first period and extended the lead to 7-4 in the first two games of the day. In the 12th game, he attacked a simple mid-pocket pink ball when he was leading 39-18 and went wide to deliver a good mountain and river. After Jones cleared the stage, he scored 49 points in a single stroke to pull back a game. Higgins then scored 59 and 64 points in a row to extend the score to 9-5 and regain control. In the 15th game, the two sides tangled to the color ball stage, and Higgins lost the far yellow ball when he was 28-58 down, which allowed Jones to close the difference.
Both sides had chances in the 16th game, but Higgins took the lead on the final red ball on the table and cleared the table to seal the win.
Four-time World Champion Higgins said: "You can tell from his body language that Jamie is still persistent at 9-5. He probably felt like he could beat me in the game because he knocked out Robertson in qualifying, and he'd beaten me a few times before. It's tough, but you have to stick with it and try to play at your best. I feel like I played well tonight. "Higgins hasn't won a ranking tournament since winning the Players Championship in 2021.
"I'm really looking forward to playing 25 rounds with Allen, I've beaten him here twice before, so I have to take advantage of that. Allen is a great player and competitor. I don't think about keeping the top 16, I'm just focused on the next game. Tonight was a great win for me because you don't know how many more fights you're going to play here, it's the best place to play snooker ever. ”
"From 9-5, I fought as best I could," Jones said. I could tell that the wizard was trying a little too hard, and I tried to stick with it. If it's 9-7, who knows who's going to be out?, I'm enjoying the moment, it's always an amazing experience to play here. ”
At the next table, Trump led Forde 6-2 at the start of the second round. The first four games were tied, and then the game took a turn in the fifth game, when Forde missed a simple straight red ball after scoring 56 points to take a 63-0 lead. Xiaote scored 30 points and 40 points twice to steal the game, and took advantage of the victory to chase and win the next three games with a perfect performance of 52 points and 69 points in a single stroke.
World No. 2 Trump is aiming to reach the top eight of the World Championships for the tenth time. The game will be played for eight more innings at 2:30 p.m. on Friday. (Welcome to click to pay attention to moisturizing AB, please indicate the source for reprinting, thank you)