JOHN Higgins admits he feared a repeat of his harsh loss 12 months ago before reaching the Masters quarter-finals on Wednesday afternoon.
The Wishaw potter produced some mesmerising snooker as he downed China’s Liang Wenbo 6-4 in the first round at London’s Alexandra Palace.
In last year’s Masters, Higgins racked up three centuries but somehow still lost 6-4 to Mark Allen and acknowledged that defeat was on his mind.
This time around, the two-time Masters champion opened up with a 119 break and compiled two other centuries, one of which saw him pot 13 reds and 13 blacks before running out of position and losing the chance to make an eighth maximum 147 break of his career.
Higgins won three ranking events in 2015 after a barren few years and insists that his confidence is now soaring after a sterling display
“It’s just pleasing coming to tournaments and thinking I can put up a good performance against the best players,” said Higgins.
“I haven’t done that in the last two or three years – I’ve been quite an easy game for most players. It’s good to come and feel confident of doing some damage on the table.
“I don’t think that really sends a message out to the rest of the players though because every game is different.
“I’m delighted with the way I hit the ball – I was just thinking back to my match with Mark Allen and that was a similar standard but I ended up on the losing end.
“I thought Liang played very well as well – he can look back on the whole game and has probably only missed a couple of balls. It was a really good, high-quality game to be involved in.”
Higgins will have an opportunity to do some more damage when he faces world champion Stuart Bingham in the last eight on Friday evening.
Bingham has struggled somewhat since winning the world title back in May, not advancing beyond a semi-final this season, with suggestions that he is struggling to balance practice with the off-the-table commitments that come as world champion.
However, he has shown signs of a potential turnaround in recent weeks and Higgins is relishing the occasion.
“Stuart has done ever so well. He’s obviously had a bit of a slow start as a world champion but it should be a great occasion,” added the 40-year-old.
“He’ll have a lot of family and friends down and it should be a good crowd on Friday night. If you can’t get up for that against the world champion, then you shouldn’t be playing.”
Meanwhile, Australian Neil Robertson, who won the UK Championship last month, strolled to a 6-0 success Marco Fu, who had complained of feeling unwell before the match.
Victory sets up a quarter-final against fellow left-hander Judd Trump on Friday afternoon.
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