JOHN Higgins believes he may well have lost to the winner of the event after exiting the World Snooker Champion- ship at the second- round stage in Sheffield.
Despite having led 5-1, the Wishaw man trailed Ding Junhui 9-7 overnight and the world No 3 rammed home that advantage yesterday morning to triumph 13-9. Breaks of 63 and 37 handed Ding the first two frames of the session and although Higgins responded with a run of 94, the Chinese potter eventually crossed over the line with a 36.
After his exit, the 39-year-old admitted that failing to press home his early advantage cost him dearly.
"I let him off the hook a little bit when I was 5-1 in front and I missed a red," said Higgins. "From then on he was clinical. He seems in a better frame of mind and ready to tough it out. His all-round game, his safety play and everything was all top notch.
"He's grown up - he seems more at ease within himself and he's a real danger to win this tournament.
"My concentration in the last session was very poor though. I made a few 40s or 50s during the match and still lost frames, which you can't afford to do against the top, top boys. I've got no complaints - they punish you heavily and that is what happened there."
Meanwhile, Graeme Dott was devastated to end his season on such a low note after his World Championship adventure also came to an end at the hands of Stuart Bingham.
Dott won three best-of-19 matches just to reach the Crucible Theatre, before battling past Ricky Walden in round one, but had no response for Bingham's consistently heavy scoring.
The Larkhall man was 11-5 down overnight and the Englishman reeled off breaks of 49 and 104 to quickly secure a 13-5 win yesterday afternoon.
"It's nice to finish a season here but I would have preferred a slightly better performance," the 37-year-old said. "It not nice losing so heavily - I've got unbelievably good memories of this place but I've had some thumpings here over the years as well.
"I haven't really done much this season. Hopefully I will do better next year."
Those results mean that qualifier, and Crucible debutant, Anthony McGill, is the last Scot standing in the draw. The Glaswegian caused the shock of the tournament to beat defending champion Mark Selby 13-9 on Friday night - the 24-year-old's ice-cool resolve never looking likely to melt under the Crucible lights.
He will now face Joe Perry or Shaun Murphy in the quarter- finals and Selby insists the world No 32 is a genuine contender to lift the title.
"As I said to him at the end of the match, if he plays like that, then is no reason why he can't win it," said Selby. "I've known that Anthony is a great player for a few years now. I've played him a few times and he's got a very mature head on young shoulders.
"Every credit to him, he deserved to win because he played fantastically."
British Eurosport is the Home of Snooker, showing 19 tournaments per season including the World Championship, UK Championship the Masters and all other ranking events. Available on Sky, Virgin Media & BT TV or online/mobile via eurosportplayer.com #eurosportsnooker.
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