John Higgins and Steve Davis take centre stage
The last-16 of the snooker world championship will begin today, with Mark Allen playing Mark Davis, but undoubtedly, every snooker fan is waiting for the first glamour tie of the round to take place tonight, and that is between reigning world champion John Higgins and six-time champion Steve Davis.
Between them Higgins and Davis hold nine world championships, 49 ranking event wins, six maximums and over 700 century breaks, and the Crucible crowd will also witness two of the greatest tacticians of all time pitting their wits against one another.
Higgins won his opening match against Barry Hawkins 10-6, but it wasn’t all plain sailing for the provisional world No.1 as during the match Higgins found himself 3-1 and 5-4 down, and was fortunate to not be too far behind. “I was quite happy to be only 5-4 behind because I felt Barry was by far the better player,” said Higgins.
“Luckily I just managed to stay in touch. I knew that if I could settle down in the evening session then I would give him a better game - and so it proved.”
The three-time Crucible champion managed to overcome the tension of the opening match and eventually found his game to surge ahead. “I was a bag of nerves all day, in the first session I was all over the place. I've been feeling the nerves for a few days before the tournament, but I knew I was going to feel the pressure because I have the last two times I've come here to Sheffield to try and defend my title.
“Even at 3-1 down Barry was looking great, but there were a couple of big turning points - he'll be kicking himself,” added Higgins.
Appearing at The Crucible for a record 30th time, Davis rolled back the years to beat Mark King in the deciding frame in an opening-round battle that had the whole Sheffield crowd on the edge of their seats.
The 52-year-old received a standing ovation on both occasions when he came out to play, and such is the respect that everyone has for him even the players on the other table applauded him as well. “It was such a great reception when I came out, both times. If it wasn't so serious and I wasn't on a mission I would have had a lump in my throat. It was a fantastic reception, marvelous, but I got off to such a ropey start. The first couple of frames were horrible for me, I just had to hang in there,” Davis said.
The Nugget found himself behind in the early part of the match, but managed to find some form to take four frames in a row to lead 8-6. However, such was the intensity of the game, it was destined for a final frame, and when Davis clinched it, he expressed his delight at the win, as he became the oldest player to win a match at The Crucible since the late Eddie Charlton, 59, in 1989.
Davis was also suffering from blurred vision during the match but to his relief he somehow managed to cross the finishing line.
“I was 5-3 down and all of a sudden when I started looking the balls were blurry. I only had it two other times in my life, it's called ocular migraine. Where you get all sparkly lights and you can't see. Looking at the balls in the last frame and they all started going blurry.
“I managed to make a 40-odd break but I could only see half the ball. It was the weirdest thing. I had it since about four o'clock, maybe it was the stress or the pressure I don't know. I had some bananas in the interval tonight and that worked,” Davis added.
Higgins and Davis will want to serve up a treat, and a cracking game of snooker is on the cards, with this glamour tie being the first of several ties in the last-16 that could well go the distance over three sessions spanning 25 frames.
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