A BAD kick and missed chances were to blame for losing a dramatic final-frame decider in the first round of the Dafabet Masters to Mark Allen.
That was the assessment of world No.3 John Higgins after his 6-5 defeat to the Northern Irishman at the Alexandra Palace yesterday afternoon.
The two-time Masters winner suffered his 12th first round exit in 23 appearances in this event, despite a spirited display in London.
It was the Wizard of Wishaw’s third defeat at this stage of the competition to Allen and his second first round exit in the last three years - a run of results he admitted still stings.
“They [first-round losses] don’t get any easier. I seem to have had a lot of them in my career,” he said.
“I don’t know if you could tell, I thought I got a kick on that black, when I was playing it into the reds it bounced, but who knows. It was a bad miss and a miss that cost me the game.
“I had a good chance at the start but missed a bad red. I have no complaints, I missed the clutch balls at the end and when you do that you don’t win, it’s that simple.”
A 111 break in the second frame had given Higgins a 2-0 lead before Allen fought back to go into the mid-session interval all square.
And it was 4-4 when a dramatic clearance from Higgins, including five reds and five blacks, saw the black ball re-spotted with the scores tied at 67 apiece.
And while it was the man from Antrim who was successful on the black to claim a 5-4 lead, the Scotsman wasn’t finished yet.
The experienced 41-year-old kept his composure to make a 77 break, his second highest of the match, in the 10th frame for a second decider in the first three matches at this year’s Masters.
At the conclusion of that break, the four-time World Champion lifted his hand to his ear, copying Allen’s effort to gee up the crowd, as the match headed into its final frame.
“When Mark won the frame he wanted to hear the roar of the crowd and then I just copied it I suppose when I made it five each,” he added.
“But there was nothing wrong with the crowd. It was a great atmosphere.”
Higgins’ defeat means that there will be no Scottish player in the quarter-finals of the Masters for the first time since 1988.
Watch the London Masters LIVE on Eurosport 2, featuring daily studio analysis from Ronnie O’Sullivan, Jimmy White and Neal Foulds.
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