Hong Kong Masters: John Higgins battles past Judd Trump in thrilling quarter-final to set up Marco Fu clash

John Higgins says his thrilling 5-4 victory over Judd Trump at the Hong Kong Masters had “one of the best atmospheres” he’s ever played in after he won the battle between the former world champions.

Higgins was 3-1 up, before Trump won three frames in a row to get within one frame of victory.

“The atmosphere tonight was incredible,” said Higgins after the match.

“One of the best atmospheres I’ve ever played in front of and to beat someone as good as Judd is a big win for me because I lost so many matches lately consecutively against Judd so it was good to get one back.

“I can’t wait to come back on Saturday and play Marco. It will be a special occasion to play Marco here in his home city. I really look forward to that.”

Higgins won a tentative opener by laying a brilliant snooker with just the colours left on the table. Trump fouled with the white going in the pocket, leaving Higgins to clear up.

The 2019 world champion hit back in fine fashion with a break of 136, only for Higgins to knock in a century of his own to make it 2-1 and he took a two-frame lead into the mid-session interval after he capitalised on a safety error from Trump.

Trump fluked a red onto another and made the most of it to continue the one-visit snooker with another century of 120.

Then, an error straight off the break from Higgins allowed Trump in to make the scores level at 3-3.

A tense seventh frame could have gone either way but it went the way of world No. 2 after Higgins squandered a few chances. However, a break of 70 from Higgins sent the match to a decider.

“The turning point was when Judd missed the blue when he was 4-3 in front,” said Higgins. “If he pots the blue, he would have been on the next red and he would have won 5-3.”

In the last frame, Higgins went for a mid-range red after Trump’s break off shot and made a break of 58 before running out of position.

He went for a double and left Trump a simple long red, only for The Ace in the Pack to run out of position himself.

The Scott made a break of 16 to leave Trump needing snookers before sealing the match to take an exciting 5-4 victory.

On Friday, the last quarter-finals will be played with Neil Robertson playing Mark Williams, who has come in as a late replacement after Zhao Xintong tested positive for coronavirus.

Ronnie O’Sullivan faces Ng On Yee in the other match on Friday at 12:00 UK time.

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