John Higgins admitted he was second best to Ronnie O’Sullivan following Friday’s semi-final at the Shanghai Masters. The Scot struggled to live with the Rocket, finding himself down for much of the match before eventually succumbing to a 6-2 defeat. It was his third straight loss to O’Sullivan, having also been humbled at both the English Open and Champion of Champions and must now head back to the drawing board to iron out the flaws in his game.
The 42-year-old was extremely gracious in defeat when quizzed after Friday’s match, conceding that the better man won. Higgins said: “The best two players this week are in the final, Ronnie and Judd. I tried hard but I found the conditions difficult. There has been a lot of rain here and it was difficult to move the white around. “Ronnie potted some great balls and made some good clearances. If I had won the seventh frame on the black I might have been back in the match, but overall I didn’t play well enough.” O’Sullivan will now face Judd Trump in Saturday’s final at the Shanghai Grand Stage while Higgins’ next outing likely to be next month’s UK Championship in York.
The 2017-18 campaign has been fairly kind to Higgins to far, most notably winning in India, and he will head to the Barbican Centre eyeing a fourth career victory in the tournament. Higgins has also reached the semi-finals in Yorkshire in each of the last two seasons and is 10/1 to win the tournament, with O’Sullivan and Mark Selby the joint 4/1 favourites.
Shanghai Masters odds available at Dafabet.