John Higgins edges past Ronnie O’Sullivan to enter the semifinal of World Snooker Championship 2011
The Wizard of Wishaw, John Higgins, stormed into the semifinal after beating the Englishman, Ronnie O’Sullivan, in their quarterfinal clash of the Betfred.com World Snooker Championship 2011 on Wednesday,
April 27 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. The Scottish cueman, Higgins, will meet the Welshman, Mark Williams, in the semifinal on Thursday.
The quarterfinal was a tussling affair as the pair fought brilliantly throughout the match. The first and second sessions ended in a tie at 4-4 and 8-8 respectively, in a see-saw manner. Higgins was
5-8 down to the Rocket, O’Sullivan, before he sprang back to pull level at 8-8, clinching three consecutive frames before the end of the second session.
The Scotsman said, “At 8-5 down I thought I was on my way out of the tournament because Ronnie's the best front-runner we've got. You can forget it sometimes. So it was lucky for me he missed a few
he wouldn't normally miss.”
After starting the final session at 8-8, Higgins took the scrappy first frame of the session with the score line of 73-35, firing a couple of small decent breaks to make four consecutive frame wins.
The Wordsley potter, O’Sullivan responded with a rattling century clearance of 116 in the next frame to take it at 9-124, making it 9-9.
However, the former three-time World Champion, O’Sullivan, missed the yellow at 63-38 - after Higgins smashed a superb 63 break in the 19th frame - to let his opponent on the table, who
clinched the frame at 68-38.
The North Lanarkshire potter, Higgins pocketed a couple of outstanding breaks of 65 and 73 to grab back-to-back frames with the frame score line at 103-23 and 73-54 respectively. After Higgins made
it 12-9, O’Sullivan came back and won the 22nd frame at 23-94 with a fine knock of 94. However, that was followed by Higgins’ cracking clearance of 79 to take the glorious quarterfinal by 13-10.
Ronnie O’Sullivan was visibly upset with his performance as he made some very basic mistakes in the match. While speaking to reporters after the match, he said, “I
made far too many elementary mistakes which is unforgivable at this level, or any level, even amateur level.”
The 35-year-old Higgins will next meet the former Double Champion, Mark Williams, in the semifinal clash. The semifinal will be a test of skills for both cuemen, especially for Higgins as he has been
beaten by the Welshman twice before at the Crucible Theatre, in 1999 and 2000.
“As people say, you're only halfway there now, so playing Williams now will be a very tough game. He's beaten me twice before in semi-finals here, and he's back to playing the way we all know he can
play,” he said.
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