John Higgins hails Irish snooker fans for their love for snooker: 2011-12 PTC Grand Finals
Current World Snooker Champion, Scotland’s John Higgins is heading to Ireland where he will be taking part in the 2011-12 Players Tour Championship (PTC). The World Number three appreciated the Irish snooker fans for their love of the sport. He believes
that the Irish snooker fans are fantastic and they pay great respect to the potters.
Snooker remained absent in Ireland for six years and there was no major or minor snooker events but after Barry Hearn joined World Snooker as Chairman, he launched a campaign to promote the game across the globe. Bringing snooker back to Ireland was one
of his first initiatives which turned out to be a great decision in the end.
The 2010-11 PTC Grand Finals was the first tournament that was organised there. The event was won by England’s Shaun Murphy. Higgins could not qualify for the finals because he did not participate in all PTC events due to his six-month ban because of match
fixing charges. However, the Wizard of Wishaw is happy to play in Ireland for the first time in his career.
Speaking to World Snooker, Higgins said, “The Irish snooker fans are fantastic and I'm delighted to have a tournament in Galway for the first time. It will be St Patrick's weekend and hopefully the fans will celebrate by watching some snooker.”
The 36-year-old added, “We have had an explosion in the number of tournaments this season and it has been a learning process because we need to find a balance between playing in events and spending time with our families. Next year I think I will be better
equipped to deal with that.”
Higgins was not able to perform according to the standards in the current season as he could not win any major event. However, he is still looking to hit a major ranking victory before the season ends because he needs a winning momentum to defend his World
Snooker Championship title he won last year beating the 2011 UK Championship winner, England’ Judd Trump.
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