Higgins holds tight in Ebdon whitewash

Dry hands and a former world champion could not block the path of John Higgins into the quarter-finals of the Star Group China Open in Beijing.

The arid climate of the Chinese capital is not doing the Scot’s skin any favours but Higgins ignored that to hammer Peter Ebdon 5-0.

“With my hands being the way they are it felt like there were bits and pieces on my cue,” said Higgins.

“It was a strange feeling but luckily it didn’t affect me too badly. That performance was a lot better than yesterday.”

Higgins, who recovered from 4-3 down to edge Stuart Bingham 5-4 on the pink in the previous round, this time cruised as an out-of-sorts Ebdon crashed to his second whitewash in as many tournaments and his third this season.

“Peter never settled. He struggled from the start. That’s unusual for him because he’s got such a strong mentality,” said Higgins, who is now 9-9 in career meetings with the normally stubborn Englishman.

Higgins constructed breaks of 40 twice, 78, 58 and, to slam the door, 128, while Ebdon’s highest run in being outscored 504-83 was a meagre 22.

The only close frame was the fourth. Higgins miscued trying to pot the penultimate red and jawed the brown using the rest but, set to clear to trail 3-1, Ebdon unforgivably left a black from point-blank range hanging over a top corner pocket.

With Ronnie O’Sullivan slumping to a 5-0 first-round thrashing by James Wattana last night, Higgins now believes he is involved in a two-horse race for the world number-one spot with compatriot Stephen Hendry.

“I think it’s between myself and Stephen. Every ranking point is important but there’s still a long way to go,” said Higgins, who now faces Joe Perry.

While Higgins had it easy, Stephen Lee booked his quarter-final appearance the hard way, squeezing past Wattana 5-4.

Wattana, full of confidence following his demolition of O’Sullivan, roared into a 4-1 lead but could not apply the killer blow as Lee, winner of the Welsh Open four weeks ago, refused to surrender hopes of back-to-back trophies.

When Wattana suffered a kick on a black in frame six, Lee pounced with a run of 46 and the tide turned.

Lee then snatched the seventh on the blue with a 36 clearance, made a 53 break to carry the contest its full distance and added a scrappy decider.

“It doesn’t matter if you’ve just beaten Ronnie, they’re all tough matches,” said a disgruntled Wattana.

Ken Doherty, looking to complete an overseas double after securing the Malta Cup title last month, progressed with a 5-2 victory over Ricky Walden, the surprise conqueror of world number-three Stephen Maguire in round one.

The opening four frames were shared before Doherty, who claimed he was shivering with cold before the interval, warmed up, literally and figuratively, to seize command.