Higgins Takes Final Berth In Winners' Group

Higgins Takes Final Berth In Winners' Group

News March 27th, 2018

Final
Judd Trump 2–3 John Higgins
77-0 (Trump 77), 0-105 (Higgins 105), 89-3 (Trump 89), 54-67 (Trump 52), 28-78

Semi-Finals
Judd Trump 3-1 Ricky Walden
85-16 (Trump 67), 0-137 (Walden 137), 137-0 (Trump 137), 73-18 (Trump 68)

Jimmy Robertson 1-3 John Higgins
60-63, 21-69, 134-0 (Robertson 113), 0-71 (Higgins 66)

John Higgins took the final place in the Championship League Snooker Winners’ Group by defeating Judd Trump 3-2 in the Group Seven final at Coventry’s Ricoh Arena on Tuesday evening.

The ‘Wizard of Wishaw’ entered the tournament in Group Seven last year before going on to lift the trophy, and remains on course for a repeat this time around.

Trump made a 77 to take the opening frame of the Group Seven final before Higgins hit back with a 105. The Bristolian regained his lead in the third but Higgins again hit back and breaks of XX and XX in the decider saw him progress to Winners’ Group.

“The way Judd played I fully expected him to get through so it is brilliant to beat him,” said Higgins. “When he plays like that there is nothing you can do sometimes, so I was delighted to get a chance in the final frame.

“I entered Group Seven because I thought it might be a little bit of an omen after last year, and I’ve done the first hurdle and it would be great to go and defend the title.”

Trump had earlier topped the round-robin group stage while Higgins had claimed third place by beating Dominic Dale 3-0 in the final match of the group phase. Trump saw off Ricky Walden 3-1 in his semi-final while Higgins defeated tournament debutant Jimmy Robertson by the same score line in his play-off.

Luca Brecel took the high break prize after making his first career 147 in beating Higgins 3-0, his only win of the group.

Higgins will now join Mark Williams, Ali Carter, Zhou Yuelong, Mark Selby, Kyren Wilson and Martin Gould in the Winners’ Group, which commences on Wednesday morning at 11am.

Championship League Snooker is a venture between Matchroom Sport and Perform where 25 of the game’s elite players compete with matches broadcast on a host of betting websites.

Each group features seven players with each man playing the other six once in a round-robin basis. Every match is the best of five and the winner gains one point with the loser getting zero.

At the end of the league phase the top four advances to that group’s semi-finals before the two winners meet in the final and the group champion advances to the Winners’ Group.

The losing finalist, two losing semi-finalists and player finishing fifth move into the next group where they are joined by three new players and the process is repeated.

Live scoring can be found at www.worldsnooker.com. Group fixtures and results can be found at https://championshipleaguesnooker.co.uk/

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