Snooker: Higgins hits top gear

Scotland’s John Higgins hit three tons last night including a magnificent 136 - to lead 8-1 over James Wattana in the first round of the Embassy World Championship.

The highest break of the tournament so far came in frame six as 26-year-old Higgins - from Wishaw - completely dominated the first session.

he 136 was the highlight of a superb display of high scoring from the world No 3 - surpassing the previous best of 135 held jointly by Matthew Stevens and Dave Harold.

Higgins needs just two more frames to clinch a place in the second round. A whitewash looked on the cards for the 1998 champion when he went 7-0 up, but Thailand’s Wattana - who beat Ian McCulloch to qualify for the Crucible - avoided that ignominy by knocking in a 53 in frame eight.

Celtic fan Higgins, winner of four titles this season, also made breaks of 111, 109, 66, 62 and 58.

The Scot is playing at the Crucible as a father for the first time and has admitted that his focus on snooker has dropped since the birth of son Pierce. There was no sign of that tonight, though, as he produced the best performance seen so far at this year’s championship.

The match resumes today at 6.45pm.