John Higgins had a style and swagger about him as he cruised through to the quarter-finals of this year’s World Championship with a session to spare.
His 13-1 demolition of Jack Lisowski featured three century breaks – including a tournament high of 146 – and a further six contributions over 50 as he fired a warning to rest of the field.
With the two pre-tournament favourites Mark Selby and Ronnie O’Sullivan already out before we get fully into the second week of the event, there’s a real sense of opportunity among the remaining players.
The likes of Ding Junhui, Mark Allen, Judd Trump and Kyren Wilson will feel their time is now to land a first world title but Higgins has the experience of having been here and done it before – four times in fact.
The Scot – last a winner here back in 2011 – reached last year’s final and comes into this year’s event with two ranking titles already under his belt. He’s got that winning feeling back and although into his 40s arguably still boasts the best all-round game in the world.
He’s got that extra bit of know how that some of his rivals just don’t now we’re getting down to the business end of proceedings.
O’Sullivan said himself before a ball was even stuck at this year’s tournament that Higgins should be the favourite and then as he exited the event to Ali Carter, he re-iterated again that it will be the most consistent player that wins this tournament, perhaps not the best.
Higgins falls perfectly into this bracket and although his second round opponent Lisowski was way off the form he showed to beat 2015 champion Stuart Bingham in the opening round, the efficiency in which he put him to the sword was mightily impressive. Not only is it a warning to anyone he faces for the remainder of the tournament but also could conserve plenty of energy for the sterner tests still ahead.
He still has three huge hurdles between himself and lifting a fifth world title but as the old saying goes, form is temporary and class is permanent. There’s nothing to come ahead which will in the slightest be a worry to Higgins.
