After an entertaining afternoon session today it looks like we are set for yet another O’Sullivan v Higgins clash this season in a ranking event…
Having made it through to the final seemingly scoring for fun, Liang Wenbo was brought back down to earth today by a dominant John Higgins who rattled in four breaks over 70 including a couple of century breaks. There were however a couple of frames that could easily have gone the other way and although Liang made his fair share of errors, he could well have been closer in the match. A very well-taken break of 124 to close the session did at least show that he is still in there and competing.
On the other side of the table Ronnie O’Sullivan also leads 6-2 against the Jester from Leicester Mark Selby, though that too could and should have been much closer as Selby missed golden opportunities to clear in frames five and eight. From what I saw O’Sullivan looked to be in good, if not great form, but deservedly leads having fully made the most of the his opportunities.
As an aside, both John and Ronnie had chances to make a 147 break this afternoon but it was not to be…
A perfect start to the evening session from John Higgins who has extended his lead to 7-2, while Mark Selby has done what he had to and reduced his arrears to 6-3 against Ronnie O’Sullivan with a flawless run of 136. A 92 break from the world number one in the next frame however has left Mark back where he started.
8-2 Higgins despite a couple of nasty kicks early on in frame ten…and O’Sullivan has also gone one away from victory with a top quality clearance of 59. Can’t see either match reaching a mid-session interval right now…
And John has ensured that he will not have to wait around as he secures a straightforward 9-2 victory with his third century break of the match…while Ronnie O’Sullivan has completed his 9-3 victory and we are done for the night by 8:15pm!
Bring on the semi-finals…