John Higgins beat Mark Allen 13-12 on the final black in an epic last-16 encounter at the World Championship on Monday evening.
Higgins let an earlier lead slip in the previous session at the Crucible and came out 9-7 behind his opponent ahead of the evening’s play.
Allen is still one of the best players around after his relatively recent ascent to become one of the sport’s big hitters, and has the Shootout, Players Championship and Champion of Champions crowns to his name already this season.
Higgins is yet to land a title this campaign but has markedly improved this year with five semi-final finishes across different tournaments, though he was yet to consistently show anything like his best in Sheffield.
An early miss from Allen allowed Higgins in during the first frame after the restart, and the Scot had a chance to get back within a frame to change the dynamic of the match-up, but a kick stopped him in his tracks with what appeared to be a routine red.
A miss from Allen saw Higgins land an outstanding double to the bottom right to set up a tough black, only for him to rattle it in the corner.
Rare emotion from Higgins as he gets over the line in classic with Allen
A decent break from Allen gave him a 45-point advantage with 43 left on the table, but he won out the safety play and gave himself a three-frame cushion, needing three more to progress to the last four.
Higgins responded well in the next frame with a half century – just his third of the match at that point – before opening up the reds, only to be crowded out by a trio of reds and in a difficult position at 55-1 up, having to lay the ball off towards the bottom of the table, albeit rendering the black safe.
Allen missed a close-range red to the middle right after battling from 55-40 behind, and Higgins returned to sink an easier version of the same shot as he pulled back one frame.
Higgins looked poised to build a hefty opening break in the next but stopped at 26-0 up when he left a black hanging over the bottom right as it rattled the jaws, though he pulled off a comeback later to clinch the frame to move just one frame behind at 10-9.
Allen took on a monstrously difficult long red to the bottom left and only missed fractionally early in the 20th frame, but such was the power of the shot he generated that he took the red close to the opposite corner and sunk the white.
A kiss on the pink from Higgins when he was 68-0 up left him scratching his head as a century chance looked to have gone begging, with no obvious shot to take on, and he had to leave Allen with a number of options with 75 remaining on the table. However, HIggins picked up several fouls from Allen and he returned to the table to level things with three frames more needed from either man for victory.
Fluke or deliberate? Astonishing Allen pot lights up Crucible as Higgins clash goes distance
After the mid-session interval, an accomplished break from Allen was enough to put him back in front with 66 – the highest break from him in this session.
In the next frame, Higgins elected to take a blue on when 33 up instead of pursuing a maximum, but he missed to the middle left and gave Allen a tough red to send to the opposite pocket. Allen quickly ceded control of the frame once more and Higgins returned to take it beyond his opponent and added another half century to level things at 11-11.
Higgins finally had a chance to go in front, but after looking to open the pack he was 33-0 clear with no obvious shot, he risked a double and missed to the left middle and Allen was presented with a chance – albeit one made harder by the growing pressure on both players.
Allen went ahead through some tidy safety play, with Higgins warned about the three-miss rule, and he caught the red thick before bouncing off the jaws of the left middle, and Allen was given the chance to build a decisive break to regain the lead. Soon, Allen was just one frame from an epic victory.
An exquisite pot from Higgins early in the next frame helped him into an early lead but he soon missed a red. A stalemate looked difficult to break with Higgins 23-0 up, and a re-rack loomed until Allen refused, and Higgins did well to escape a tough situation, despite leaving a red on – because there was no clear colour to build on.
After some back and forth, Higgins who swooped in to steal the frame to make it 12-12 in what was perhaps the match of the tournament so far – though Stuart Bingham v Jack Lisowski had a claim of its own on the other table.
‘Look at this, he’s found a plant…’ – Higgins hits one of the shots of the tournament
Allen was away quickly in the 25th frame as the reds and black lined up well. At 62-0 clear he was on the cusp of victory but missed a red in the bottom left, and an expert double from Higgins set him up on the black, with the reds well spaced if Higgins could stay calm, and he cleared up the remaining balls with a break of 64 to go through to a quarter-final with Kyren Wilson.
In the day’s other last 16 clash, Bingham secured a hard-fought 13-11 victory over Lisowski to set up a match with tournament favourite Ronnie O’Sullivan.
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