Higgins: Championship is wide open
John Higgins believes there remain “six or seven” potential winners of the Travis Perkins UK Championship – and the Scot is just disappointed he is not among them.
Installed favourite for the second-most prestigious ranking tournament after Ronnie O’Sullivan’s exit, the world number six did little wrong in his third-round match against Ken Doherty but was on the end of a 9-6 defeat as his opponent rediscovered his best form.
There have been some impressive performances so far, with Chinese sensation Ding Junhui, defending champion Stephen Maguire and world number 37 Stuart Bingham, who cannot stop winning in the qualifiers, all showing they are in good enough shape to lift the trophy on Sunday.
Add in Stephen Hendry, a resurgent Doherty, world champion Shaun Murphy and his third-round rival Neil Robertson, the rising Australian star, and there is no shortage of contenders even with O’Sullivan and Higgins out of the running.
“You could choose anyone to go all the way now,” said Higgins, whose destruction of world number one O’Sullivan in the final of the Grand Prix two months ago established him as the man to beat in York.
“There are six or seven guys with a chance of winning.”
If Doherty can maintain the quality he produced against Higgins for the rest of the event then he will be very difficult to beat, having compiled three century breaks and looking watertight in all aspects of his game as he pulled away by winning the last three frames.
“It was the best I’ve played since losing the World Championship final in 2003,” said the Irishman, who will face either Maguire or Steve Davis in the quarter-finals with the title-holder leading their clash 5-3.
“That defeat knocked the stuffing out of me for some reason and it has taken a long time for me to get back. I always knew it was still in me though and it’s great to be playing good snooker again.
“I’m not really worried about winning the tournament, it’s just good to have got myself back in order.
“I still have the hunger, there’s no doubt about that. I’ve just been short of confidence. Hopefully the win against John will give me the confidence to keep playing the way I know I can.”
Bingham is also through to the last eight, in which he will meet one of last year’s two beaten semi-finalists, Joe Perry and Mark King, who play today.
“They obviously both like this place and it will be a tough game for me whichever of them gets through,” said the Basildon professional, who is in the form of his life at present.
Also into the quarter-finals is Ali Carter after he withstood some typically intense pressure from Peter Ebdon to advance 9-7.
Questions have been raised about the temperament of the world number 19 when the going gets tough, but he produced the best possible response after missing frame-ball yellow and pink for an 8-7 lead and closed out the eighth seed to book a potential clash with Hendry.
