John Higgins clinched his second consecutive title in extremely clinical style by beating Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-7, having come back from 5-4 down at the interval.
Higgins was arguably at the most disadvantage out of all of the players, with fears of suffering from jet-lag. But he proved a lot of people wrong, having beaten world-class players in Shaun Murphy, Judd Trump, and Ding Junhui to reach the final. He also out-safetied and even out-scored the Rocket by scoring 10 half-centuries to claim the crown.
Higgins, who got the last available trophy in the China Championship to enter this tournament, will be relaxed and happy knowing that he pocketed £300,000 within a week, showing how bloody crazy money is in snooker. He deserves it too, as he was by far the best player out of both tournaments and it is scary to think, on that form at the age of 41, how long he will he on the circuit for.
O’Sullivan, on the other hand, will consider that a good week and showed that practice at least pays dividends (or any practice that isn’t exhibitioning for that matter). Despite losing his first Champion of Champions match since the event started a few years ago, he has made another final despite not playing his A-game and was gracious in defeat. He will need to carry that form, as he participates in the Northern Ireland Open tomorrow.
To be honest, I would’ve preferred John to win – beating Murphy, Trump and then Ding deserves most titles and to also beat O’Sullivan is a massive statement to say he is close to being at his very best. And I predicted that Higgins would win like he did against Bingham last final 10-7 on the day he played O’Sullivan – suddenly pigs can fly!
