John Higgins was very complimentary about his long-time rival. (Image: BBC)
John Higgins says he felt like a rabbit caught in the headlights before remarkably gatecrashing the champions’ celebration. The Scottish legend discovered fresh inspiration on a magical Monday to spectacularly fight back and overcome Ronnie O’Sullivan in an epic World Snooker Championship encounter.
Higgins was behind 6-2 and 9-4, but after claiming Sunday’s final three frames to resume at 9-7 down, the five-time champion responded by firing three centuries before clinching victory 13-12 in a nail-biting climax. The 50-year-old acknowledged it was dramatic and smiled, showing his class to praise his opponent, and said: “I’m just delighted I came to the party in the third session.
“Just not giving up. At 6-2 behind, I said to the family: I’ve got to win the next two sessions. Simple.
“I wasn’t having any negative thoughts. I wasn’t despondent. It’s a great win, especially from 9-4 down.
“Let me tell you, Ronnie played amazing in that game, his cue-ball control, if he tells you any differently, I’ve played him for years and I thought he was striking it great. That was the best I’ve ever seen him hit the ball.
“You’re admiring it, but I was still feeling confident. For the first two sessions, I felt as if I was just a bystander. I don’t know how I was only 9-7 behind.
“Ronnie was by far the better player, his cue-ball was amazing. That’s what sort of makes you just feel inferior sometimes and I’m scrapping about.
“But there are circumstances why that is because we all know he uses the other chalk and different things, so that’s what makes the table play a little bit bouncy, it’s all messy and different things, but you’ve just got to try and get it out of your mind.
“Today it was a brand new cloth, which helped me a great deal. It made it a lot more of, I wouldn’t say a level playing field because we’re playing on the same table, but he’s just got a better cue-ball control than any player in the game today, so he can override that.
“I wouldn’t have had that burst in me if it was the old cloth. It was a brand new, clean slate and it played better.”
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John Higgins smiling in his match with Ronnie O’Sullivan. (Image: Getty)
It didn’t prevent a kick in the final frame, potentially from O’Sullivan’s chalk choice, almost derailing him at a critical moment and he said: “I prayed. I said: Oh my God, but he was listening because he gave me another chance and then I potted the red in the middle.”
Higgins struggled to find his rhythm early on and believes the extraordinary ovation given to himself, O’Sullivan and Mark Williams during the Saturday night Class of 92 reunion caught him off guard.
He said: “I’ll be brutally honest, it threw me. I just felt I was like a rabbit with the headlights a little bit,
“I’m maybe not that character, I think maybe Ronnie could thrive off it and he just settled down right away and I’m thinking: Wow, it just felt everything enclosed in me, it really did.
“But that’s just what this place can do to you, that was incredible, it really was all the way through the match.”
On the matter of O’Sullivan’s chalk marking tables, Higgins added: “Why wouldn’t you take the advantage when you have got a better cue ball control than every other player?
“So why wouldn’t you have that advantage? Because if you’re going in at a level playing field, everybody’s using the same chalk, no chalk marks, everything, it maybe gives players more chance of beating them.
“That’s what people do in every sport, they try to use the little advantage. I don’t know, you’d obviously have to ask Ronnie’s real feelings about that, about using old chalk. Who knows?”
Having secured his place in the quarter-finals, Higgins swiftly dismissed any talk of a fifth title, saying: “It’s a great match, but second round, I’ve got to get a good rest, You’ve only got one sleep and then you’re right back into it.”