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Higgins Eases Through

Thu 27 Mar, 11:09 AM


World champion John Higgins impressed in the Far East as he became the first player through to the quarter-finals at this week's Honghe Industrial China Open.

And the Scottish cueman was joined in the last eight by two-time world champion Mark Williams, Englishman Nigel Bond and compatriot Stephen Maguire.

All four players progressed to the business end of this season's £250,000 week-long tournament at the Beijing Sports Gymnasium,

Having been taken the distance by Belfast professional Joe Swail in his first-round match earlier in the week, Higgins was doubly happy with his emphatic 5-1 demolition of Romford's Mark King.

"I finished the match well," reflected the world number one. "I gave Mark a lot of chances early on so I'm pleased to win.

"My match with Joe (Swail) was bad but I got some confidence from making a good break in the last frame.

"I gave Mark some chances and he didn't take them. My next opponent is sure to take them so I will have to play better."

Higgins started with an impressive 88 break before King levelled proceedings with a fine 62 run.

But from there it was one-way traffic as Wishaw-based cueman Higgins ran away with the match.

The Scot added further breaks of 50, 71, 62, 39 and a cool 116 in the final frame to complete a comfortable victory in just one hour and 20 minutes.

Victory will see the two-time world champion face either Mark Selby or Marco Fu in this year's quarters, with the pair duo to contest their last-16 match later today.

Leicester's Selby is arguably the season's best player having already won two titles, while Fu won the Aberdeen Grand Prix ranking event towards the back end of last year.

"Whether it's Mark or Marco, it's going to be a really tough match for me," added Higgins. "But if I win it will be great for my confidence going to the World Championship next month, especially because both of them have beaten me already this season."

Welshman Williams was locked at 2-2 with fellow former world champion Peter Ebdon in their last-16 meeting, but resumed to win three frames in succession after the interval and a place in the next phase.

Ebdon had breaks of 45 and 70 to lead 2-0, but Williams made it five straight frames thanks to match breaks of 47, 46, 46 and 42. The two-time Crucible champion faces either Dubliner Ken Doherty or Welshman Ryan Day tomorrow.

Glaswegian Maguire, this season's Northern Ireland Trophy winner, came back from 1-0 down to beat Beckenham professional Barry Hawkins 5-2.

Hawkins had a top break of 96 to take the opening frame and also a run of 44 later in the match, but Maguire quickly took control and progressed with breaks of 71, 46, 85 and 75.

The Scot will play Derbyshire golden oldie Bond in the next round. Qualifer Bond thumped Norwich cueman Barry Pinches, himself a qualifier for this season's tournament, 5-1 courtesy of breaks of 104, 47, 100, 49 and 70.

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