With the latest leg of the World Series starting today, organiser John Higgins has been speaking about his potential opponents this weekend while the first few day’s matches have been completed…
To read the article in full on the Daily Record website, please click here. John’s quotes are:
“I would like to play Shachar. It’s a game I would look forward to.
“But at the same time deep down your professionalism kicks in and you don’t really want to lose to someone so young – and that’s not taking anything away from him because he is a good young player.”
“Shachar is a great young player. I’ve been over to his family home in Tel Aviv and had a practice game with him on his match table.
“It’s guys like him who could be the future of snooker, definitely.
“Apart from having bags of talent he listens to what you tell him and takes any pointers on to the table.
“He’s a nice young boy as well and hopefully a star in the making. But first of all we’ve both got our opening matches to take care of and there’s no way I will be treating my first-round opponent lightly.
“Taking snooker events to places such as Moscow is what the World Series is all about and it can only strengthen the growth of the game.
“Giving these players the opportunity to play guys like myself can only help them get better.”
Well after today’s results this will indeed be one of the semi-finals after both Higgins and Shachar won their opening matches today. Shachar has been drafted in to cover for the absent Graeme Dott (due to the birth of his second child any time now), and hopefully he will be able to give a good account of himself against John, though at just 14 nobody will be expecting him to win.
As has often been the case in these World Series events so far, it was the professional players who enjoyed comfortable victories over their local opponents in their opening matches of the tournament. Ding Junhui came through 4-0 against Sergey Isaenko while Mark Selby overcame Ruslan Chinakhov 4-1. They will now meet tomorrow in what should be an entertaining semi-final match.
Likewise Higgins won 4-0 against Anna Mazhirina and as mentioned already, goes on to face Shachar who enjoyed an excellent 4-1 win himself against Sergey Vasiliev.
Mark Selby 4-1 Ruslan Chinakhov
Ding Junhui 4-0 Sergey Isaenko
Shachar Ruberg 4-1 Sergey Vasiliev 28-72, 74-27, 64-25, 76-27
John Higgins 4-0 Anna Mazhirina 88(61)-15, 80(800-20(20), 76(56)-7, 79(65)-12