Yesterday, John Higgins beat Barry Hawkins to book his place in the 2025 Tour Championship final.
Higgins Into 58th Ranking Final
John Higgins remained on target for a second ranking title within five weeks as he enjoyed a superb 10-7 victory over Barry Hawkins in the semi-finals of the Sportsbet.io Tour Championship.
From 5-5, Higgins pulled away to win five of the last seven frames, making three centuries to come out on top of a high quality contest. The Wizard of Wishaw is into the 58th ranking event final of his career, just six short of Ronnie O’Sullivan’s record of 64. He will aim for a 33rd ranking title when he meets Mark Selby or Ding Junhui on Sunday at Manchester Central, with first to ten frames to capture the trophy and a top prize of £150,000.
After winning the Players Championship in 2021, Higgins went four years without a ranking title, and feared his days at the top table were over, particularly as he struggled to get over the line at the business end of key matches. But landing silverware at the World Open in China last month has made all the difference for the Scot, who turns 50 in May. One of the all-time greats, Higgins is now playing outstanding snooker, mixing heavy break-building with his granite tactical game, and most importantly he is finishing matches strongly. In this form, he will be one of the leading contenders at the Crucible.
Having shared the afternoon session 4-4, Higgins took the opening frame this evening with a break of 66 to lead 5-4, before Hawkins levelled with a 125. The Englishman had two scoring chances in frame 11 but managed only 12 points and Higgins punished him with 73. Early in frame 12, Hawkins went for a thin cut red to centre but completely missed the object ball and went in-off, handing Higgins an opening which he took advantage of with a sumptuous 144 total clearance, his best of the season and the new target for the £10,000 high break prize.
A safety exchange with two reds on the table in frame 13 was resolved when Higgins escaped from a snooker but left Hawkins the opportunity to clear and close the gap to 7-6. A superb 130 from Higgins restored his two frame cushion, then he dominated a fragmented 15th frame for 9-6.
A missed red to centre was costly for Higgins in the 16th as his opponent made 99 to claw one back. But Hawkins’ break-off in frame 17 left a red close to a centre pocket, Higgins swept over the line with a 107.
“I would love to win this one and be a multiple champion this season, before we go to Sheffield,” said four-time Crucible king Higgins. “In the first session, Barry was hitting the ball well and looking superb, if he had gone 4-2 up he then could have gone 5-3 or 6-2, he was freezing me out. I was delighted to be 4-4, then I knew had to play better tonight, and I thought I played great.
“It was an amazing atmosphere, it reminds me of Alexandra Palace on a smaller scale. It’s an incredible venue and Manchester is a great city. I’m sure Sunday will be even better and I can’t wait.“
Hawkins, who had knocked out Shaun Murphy and Judd Trump, said: “It was a good match, I just had a few loose shots and John punished me heavily, he looked at the top of his game. It has still been a good week but I am disappointed right now.“
It was a good match but I’m deeply unhappy about the outcome. Those who know me, or read this blog regularly, know why. And, no, that’s not going to change ever unless new elements come to light that radically change my perspective on what happened in 2010.
Regarding the second semi-final, due to be played today, I don’t have a “favourite”. I like both players. I would be delighted to see Ding lift the trophy tomorrow but I think that Mark Selby is better equipped to stop Higgins.
Some more personal thoughts on the Ronnie situation …
This is nothing new but for clarity, here is what Ronnie said about his plans, as reported by the BBC :
“I don’t know yet. I haven’t made my mind up, I’ll probably make a decision on maybe 17 or 18 April,” O’Sullivan said on TNT Sports.
“I don’t know when I’m due to play my first match, so I’m going to try and leave myself as much time as possible.
“I’d love to be able to go there and play. I’d love to be able to have the confidence to be able to get my cue out and go and play snooker.
“I just need to give myself as much time as possible to see where I’m at with it, and see whether it’s something I’m going to be able to do.“
…
“It’s been a real struggle,” he added. “I’ve tried to play my way through. I’ve had moments and glimpses where I thought: ‘OK, this is OK.‘
“But on the whole, probably three-and-a-half years out of the last four have been pretty terrible for me and that’s kind of took its toll.
“I kind of got a bit tired. It kind of ground me down to the point where I kind of lost the love for the game.
“That’s why in January, I snapped my cue just in temper, in frustration. I don’t really want to feel like that, so I’ve taken time out. I am just gonna try and fix what I think is the problem before I come back to play serious snooker again.”
So? Ronnie won five titles last season and still feels like he’s been awful for the best part of the last four seasons? That may sound crazy but that’s what depression does to those who suffer from it and it rarely really goes away completely. Mark Selby has been open about that as well. Also, in my opinion, the collapse of his 13 years long relationship with Laila Rouass hasn’t helped. People close to them have reported that, despite the difficulties, there was still a lot of love between them. I’m not sure that, if true, this is making things easier. When a relationship ends in acrimony and bitter resentment, it’s ugly, but it makes it easier to walk away and start anew.
For me, the situation is this: Ronnie is struggling with depression, badly, and feels unable, psychologically, to cope with the demands of his sport. Also the huge expectations that always weigh on him whenever he plays aren’t helping. If that’s the case, not playing is the sensible decision, and definitely far better than walking out mid match like he did at the 2006 UK Championship against Hendry. Nobody wants to see that again.
Many fans are complaining and brandishing the “what if there is an empty session?”. I understand their concerns but as seed number 5, Ronnie is likely to be scheduled to play his first session on the third or fourth day of the tournament, or even earlier but that has happened only once recently. That leaves a bit time for WST to deal with the situation IF necessary. Usually, during the first week, most sessions feature a match that is in its first session and one that is in its second session. When one table “finishes”, the curtain is lifted and the whole Crucible can watch the other table. The only possible “disaster” scenario would be that the match due to finish during Ronnie’s scheduled “first session” is so one sided that only a couple of frames remain to be played. It could happen, of course, but it doesn’t happen that often and given the quality of the qualifiers this year, I would be surprised if we had many one-sided matches in the first round this time.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
I think these interviews just gave way to more speculations, rather than end them. I know Ronnie’s status in the game is tremendous, but there is something sad in that the World Championship is coming up and the main question seems to be whether or not Ronnie is going to play it. It is also unfortunate that he pulled out of the Masters only to say in a few days he would be fine to play there, but wanted to give a chance to his replacement, but seems to keep everyone guessing till the last moment at the Worlds.
It is very strange from a strategical point of view that he gives this bunch of interviews now.
And where the heck are Peters and Feeney?
Strange is the wrong word. It is “notable”.
I mean Peters could surely do things, but if Ronnie doesn’t like a cue, then he doesn’t like a cue.
I think it’s good that he spoke out, indeed putting an end to speculations about the situation. Regarding Steve Peeters, it’s been a while since I last heard about him. He’s going to turn 72 in 3 months from now. How “active” he still is, I’m not sure. Steve Feeney will not be able to help Ronnie with this. I don’t think that the issue is actually “technical”. Typically, at Ronnie’s age, eyesight is changing. Willo has been open about what he goes through. Ronnie has admitted that he’s facing that issue as well. There is no easy solution to that, if any at all. Bifocal glasses are difficult to adapt to. Lenses can be an answer if your eyes accept them and, very likely, a player will need time to adapt and “reprogram” their brain to their new vision. Perception of distances in particular can be very different and eye dryness can be a major issue. (I know because I had lenses for 30 years, before getting Lasik surgery). Surgery helps with myopia, but not with the effects of ageing I’m afraid.
Ok. I thought he was younger.
Thank you for your thoughts. As you have pointed out no one knows how Ronnie really feels when he is in this state of mind even though the neutral spectator might have the impression he is playing solid snooker. Still, I was quite surprised about the point in time when he emotionally collapsed during the Champions League. He had taken a long break before the UK Champinships and when he returned, he didn’t win but he played quite well and seemed quite happy with his performances. After that he went on a two-weeks tour in China and played good snooker winning all of his matches making many, many centuries. Then he came back – probably exhausted because of the travelling – and the Champions League happened. So to put it in a nutshell, one could have had the impression that things were improving for Ronnie. But then again, what do we know … . Of course I would love to see Ronnie playing the World Championships, but I lean towards the assumption that it might be better for Ronnie to give it a miss, avoid the stress and take the summer to recover and feel better within himself. He will know when it is the right time to come back and I think he is in a stage in his career where it only matters that he looks after himself, hopefully without having the stress to live up to other people’s expectations.