Higgins coasts into second round

John Higgins coasted into the second round of the €599,000 European Open at the expense of a below par Barry Pinches at the Hilton Conference Centre, Malta.

Higgins, the fourth seed, thrashed Pinches 5-0 after the Norwich professional failed to engage anything approaching top gear.

Pinches is enjoying his best ever season after reaching his first ranking event quarter-final in 14 years as a pro at the UK Championship last November.

Last month he beat highly rated Chinese teenager Ding Jun Hui to reach the final qualifying round of the Embassy World Championship.

But his highest break in the first three frames against Higgins was just 15 and he improved on this only with a 33 in the fourth.

And Higgins, who began the match with a run of 68, finished it off with a 132 to complete the rout.

“Barry has had a great year so I was expecting a much tougher match but he didn’t play at all and that made it much easier,” said Higgins, who is searching for his first major title since winning the Irish Masters in March 2002.

“He was obviously playing well coming here because he beat Ding in the world championship but it didn’t happen for him.”

Higgins has a reputation for struggling in overseas tournaments but he won the European title in Malta in 1997 and has picked up trophies in Germany and China.

As the Scot headed for the sunbed, Pinches was left to rue his squandered opportunities.

The 33-year-old, who plays in a special green and yellow waistcoat, the colours of his beloved Norwich City, was hoping for a confidence boost before he tackles Tony Drago in the final qualifying round of the world championship later this month.

“John had good breaks in the first and last frames but I had a load of chances in the others and didn’t take them, which is disappointing,” said Pinches, the world number 36.