John Higgins suffered the heaviest defeat of his 34-year-career and as he lost 10-1 to China’s Zhao Xintong in the semi-finals of the Tour Championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Higgins is a legend of the sport with four World Championship titles and 33 ranking events to his name, but never before had the 50-year-old been beaten by such a one-sided scoreline. He had lost twice by a margin of nine frames before – 13-4 against Stephen Hendry at the 2012 World Championship and 18-9 against Judd Trump in the 2019 Crucible final – but never in a best-of-19 contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The only small consolation for Scotland’s Higgins was that he narrowly avoided a whitewash, as Xintong missed an opportunity to win frame ten when he led 9-0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Higgins had been defending the title in Manchester having beaten Mark Selby in the final last year, and he reached the semi-finals with fine wins over Mark Williams and Selby again. He made errors across the day against Xintong, but his flamboyant opponent was virtually unstoppable, piling in a century and ten more breaks over 50.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Twenty-nine-year-old Xintong will meet Judd Trump in Sunday’s best-of-19 final, a fascinating clash between the World Champion and world number one, with the winner to lift the trophy for the first time and bank \u00a3150,000. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It will be their first meeting in a final, though they have met in two semi-finals already this season, Trump winning 6-2 at the Champion of Champions then Xintong gaining revenge with a 4-3 success on his way to landing the Riyadh Season Snooker Championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Xintong is into his sixth ranking final and has won his first five – a feat only achieved previously by Steve Davis, Mark Williams and Neil Robertson. The left-hander is aiming to become the first player to win all three events in the Players Series in the same season, having captured both the World Grand Prix and Players Championship in February. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He is sure to climb to a career high of fourth place in the Johnstone’s Paint World Rankings, whatever the result tomorrow. And if he wins the title his earnings for the season will go past the \u00a31 million mark with his Crucible crown defence still to come.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Breaks of 69, 64, 54, 81, 74, 78, 58, 62 and 104 put Xintong 8-0 up in the first session. Higgins had a scoring chance in the opening frame tonight but ran out of position on 14 and after a bout of safety, Xintong knocked in a long red to set up a run of 54 for 9-0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In frame ten, Xintong was on 41 with the balls well placed when an attempted pink to centre hit the far jaw, and a relieved Higgins cleared with 79 to avoid the whitewash, returning to his seat with a wry smile as the crowd applauded. He had an early chance in frame 11 but missed a tricky pink on 9, and that proved his last shot as Zhao wrapped it up with a break of 85.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I played well and I am very happy to reach the final,” said Xintong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“My cueing was very good, I tried not to think too much, I just enjoyed the table and concentrated on the balls. This season I have been in four finals and I am enjoying every moment and trying to get better. To play Judd in a final for the first time will be a big moment for me, it will be very tough.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John Higgins suffered the heaviest defeat of his 34-year-career and as he lost 10-1 to China’s Zhao Xintong<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[378],"class_list":["post-11260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-snooker"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t