Higgins digs deep

World champion John Higgins produced a battling comeback to avoid a shock defeat at the Welsh Open tonight.

The world number one was forced to come back from 3-1 down against qualifier David Roe at the Newport Centre, before he eventually clinched a 5-3 victory.

But the Scot was far from happy his performance – and at one stage feared an early exit was on the cards.

“You’re thinking at 3-1 down if you lose the next frame you’re on the way back home, so it was a good match to win,” admitted Higgins.

“I just didn’t play very well, but it was good to come back and win.

“You can sometimes look back at those matches as a turning point in your season, but I didn’t play at all well.

“However, if you’re still in the tournament you can still try and get better.

“Dave didn’t deserve to lose because I had so much run of the ball, but I’ll take any victory.

“When you lose matches like that you’ve got to take it on the chin, so when you win you’ve got to accept results like that gratefully.”

Roe edged 1-0 ahead after a scrappy opening frame, before a break of 47 made it 2-0.

Higgins pocketed a 48 break to reduce his arrears, but Derbyshire’s Roe won the next frame to lead 3-1 at the mid-session interval.

Breaks of 125, 45 and 86 saw the Wishaw-based professional recover to lead 4-3, but the eighth frame of the match dragged on for nearly 50 minutes as Roe pushed last season’s Crucible king all the way.

But Higgins won that frame on the final black and will now play either Chinese ace Ding Junhui or Scottish compatriot Marcus Campbell in the next phase.

In other matches golden oldie John Parrott bowed out at the first hurdle after a 5-2 loss to Cambridgeshire cueman Joe Perry.

Parrott had breaks of 48 and 85, but Perry’s runs of 57, 60 and 86 made sure he earned himself a last-32 meeting with last season’s UK champion Peter Ebdon.

Hong Kong potter Marco Fu beat Shropshire qualifier Adrian Gunnell 5-3 to progress, while local favourite Ryan Day impressed with a 5-2 victory over Belfast’s Mark Allen.