An indestructible John Higgins has reached his seventh snooker World Championship final as he attempts to become world champion a fifth time.
His 17-13 win over Kyren Wilson now makes him a strong favourite to land the top prize after a match where he delivered all the killer punches when they mattered – this really was trademark from Higgins.
In the end, experience really did count as despite an impressive debut at this stage of the event from Wilson, Higgins just had too much for him.
As Higgins gets set to take his place in the two-day final, The Sportsman asks what else we learned after this enthralling semi-final contest…
Definitely still good enough
When Higgins won the Indian Open earlier this season he gave an interview where he surmised that while Ronnie O’Sullivan was still good enough to win the biggest titles, himself and Mark Williams as his class of 1992 colleagues would probably be able to tick along a pick up the odd ‘smaller’ trophy. It appears he has vastly underestimated what he’s capable of as he makes it through to his second consecutive Crucible final while the Rocket has not been to the one-table setup in four attempts now.
Not only has Higgins proved he’s still good enough, but also that he’s good enough when he’s not at his best. There were long spells in this match where he was operating at his ‘B’ or even ‘C’ game but he still managed to keep Wilson at bay. Higgins is a player who has a knack of delivering the goods at the right moments in matches. When it gets to the crunch, he usually has the answers.
Two decades at the top
The Wizard of Wishaw will be taking his place in this year’s World Championship final a staggering 20 years after his first. This takes his span of competing at the very top of the sport to an amazing two decades and proves just what a fine champion he really is.
Only Fred Davis can boast a longer distance between first and last finals having beaten his brother Joe in 1940 and then reigning supreme over John Pullman in 1966.
Higgins now has greater longevity on the game’s biggest stage than all the modern-time greats.
Belonging on the big stage
Make no mistake, Wilson came here to win the world title this year but he can still take great heart from an excellent debut on the one-table setup at the Crucible. It took him a few frames to find his feet as he slipped to an early 4-1 deficit, but from that point onwards he looked totally at home and matched Higgins all the way.
Having the credentials to become world champion is about more than just talent – ask Jimmy White and Ding Junhui. You also need an abundance of battling qualities and Wilson never stopped fighting. He trailed the match by three frames on five occasions and reduced his arrears every single time. He was determined to never let Higgins get away.
He didn’t quite have enough to win this match but just hung on and hung on and refused to be beaten easily. He made Higgins fight until the absolute death. This was a display of a player who will most certainly be back. This will be the first time of many Kyren will be gracing our television sets on the BBC over the May bank holiday weekend.
