FORMER World Champion Graeme Dott's Crucible quest hangs in the balance after suffering defeat in a showdown of the Scots in Beijing.
The Pocket Dynamo needed to win the China Open to guarantee automatic qualification for the upcoming World Championships, but was dumped out in the second round by John Higgins.
Dott now faces the daunting task of winning three qualifying matches to secure his spot at snooker's Theatre of Dreams later this month.
But Higgins believes his compatriot will "definitely be one of the qualifiers" for the season finale.
"He had to win the event to get into the seedings," said the four-time World Champion. "It was going to be tough for him to win the event, but that's the way it goes.
"I think he'll definitely be one of the qualifiers though, because he's playing really well at the moment."
The Wizard of Wishaw was in no mood to do his old friend a favour, rattling off the first two frames with a top run of 49.
The Larkhall cueman was well aware of the task in hand, and hit back with two of his own, high scoring with a 57 break.
But Higgins ran away with the next three frames to crush his compatriot's Crucible chances.
In the day's earlier session, Stephen Maguire admitted he was "lucky" after fighting back from behind to clinch victory over Ryan Day.
The Glaswegian potter showed his steel to sink the last three frames after going 4-2 down, aiding his bid to remain in the world's top 16.
"I thought Ryan was the better player if I'm honest," said a relieved Maguire. "I was just clinging on to him as tight as I could.
"Everyone is trying to catch me for the last spot at the Crucible so there's a lot of pressure there.
"I got a little chance in the last frame and made a decent clearance, but I feel really lucky."
Elsewhere, promising youngsters Michael Leslie and Anthony McGill both suffered second round defeats, losing to Mark Williams and Shaun Murphy respectively.
Leslie was whitewashed 5-0 by the Welshman, whilst McGill was unable to conjure up enough to beat the Magician in their final frame decider.
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