The snooker month of July featured was almost non-existent
with just a few days of snooker at the back end of the Australian Open and the
very beginning of the Riga Open. One man was dominant though in Benidgo
throughout the event and that was John Higgins.
After winning his first ranking title since September 2012
at February’s Welsh Open he didn’t have to wait long for his next two titles as
he followed it up in July with Australian Open victory and again in the Autumn
to win the International Championships in Daqing.
The event I of course want to focus on here is the
Australian Open in Bendigo where it wasn’t a case of John cruising to victory
as he really had to battle at times in his latter stages matches against Joe
Perry, Jamie Jones and Martin Gould.
After beating Michael Georgiou 5-2 in round one and Fergal
O’Brien 5-1 in round two his toughest test of the tournament to that point came
in the quarter-finals when he took on Perry. Despite a magnificent 136 in frame
two from Joe, it was still 3-1 to John Higgins at the mid-session interval as
he chipped in with runs of 54, 57 and 50. Perry kept with Higgins after the
break with breaks of 69 and a 137 to top his earlier century levelled the match
up and put the pressure back on John. The seventh frame looked to be the key as
Higgins took it by just two points on the black to move 4-3 in front after both
guys had had chances in the frame and a 50 in the last made sure he finished
off the match without giving his opponent another glimmer of hope, winning 5-3.
On paper, you think that a major semi-final between John
Higgins and young Jamie Jones, who was appearing in his first ranking event
semi, would be a straightforward win for the Scotsman but this did not prove
the case. Jamie came out of the blocks firing early on and storming into a 4-0
mid-session interval lead with breaks of 78, 51 and 96 to leave John shell
shocked. After getting his first frame on the board Higgins was able to settle
in to the match, showing Jamie that he wasn’t going to win the easy way as that
frame was followed by breaks of 134 and 89 to close to within a single frame at
3-4. The key frame again seemed to be frame eight when both players had chances
but Higgins came out the narrow winner to level the match up with four frames
in a row of his own at 4-4. Once more, having seen the weakness in his opponent
and a sniff at winning the match now, he took full control. Jones didn’t score
another point in the match as John finished off with a 133 and 92 to win all of
the last six frames after the interval and beat Jamie Jones 6-4 to get into the
final.
In a best-of-17 frames final against Martin Gould, who has
never won a ranking event, you would again expect Higgins to be favourite for
the title, but it was far from an easy ride for Higgins. After an early 90 and
a tight second frame in his pocket Higgins went into an early 2-0 advantage but
from there Gould found his game. Breaks of 101, 86 and 89 in the next four
frames saw him go from two frames adrift to two in front at 4-2 with only two
to play in the session. John had to fight hard and a 112 in the seventh
preceded his domination in the eighth to make sure he got out of the session
level at 4-4 which of course would have been a huge moment for both players.
At the start of the second session, the Scot dominated the
opening two frames and made it four in a row in the overall match to lead 6-4,
but Gould hit back with his second century (a 138) to not let things run away.
When a 65 put Higgins 7-5 up at the interval though, you thought that may be a
big moment as he’d taken five of the last six frames. Gould stuck with him
again to square it at 7-7, but Higgins edged ahead at 8-7 before Martin took a
tight sixteenth frame to force a decider. The Scot showed what he is made of
again with an 89 break in the decider to win the title which is a simply
brilliant way to win any tournament.
The most impressive thing for me is the bottle that Higgins
continues to show, even in what you have to say is now the latter stages of his
career with not too many years left before you feel Higgins game would start to
falter and he would eventually retire. One thing that it would be easy to lose
is the self-belief required to make the big breaks and get over the line in big
contests that run close but as the Scot showed here he still has that in
abundance and that is the key reason why he is my player of the month for July.
Be sure to return tomorrow and find out the nomination for August.
No comments:
Post a Comment