John Higgins convincingly beaten by Robert Milkins in the third round of the Northern Ireland Open

An out-of-sorts John Higgins has been knocked out of the Northern Ireland Open after losing 4-1 to Robert Milkins in the third round.

Milkins can look back on arguably the finest win of his career before he faces either Zhou Yuelong or Shaun Murphy in the evening session.

He told Eurosport: “I started off alright, I made a good break in the first frame. Second frame was scrappy. John was missing lots of balls – you don’t expect it – and I was tearing up and I was feeling a bit down on myself because I was missing balls. You knew he was not going to keep missing them.

“My concentration was all over the place. I should’ve been trying to finish the game off and it could have went the other way.

“You just don’t expect it. John is so good. The fourth frame he should have got it back to two each and really he would have been looking at that at two each. He couldn’t have played any worse really.”

Higgins started poorly as Milkins took the first frame with a fine break of 65.

The errors continued from the four-time world champion as Milkins extended his lead by potting the brown, blue and pink to pinch the second frame.

The third was a scrappy affair but Higgins did reduce the deficit after a safety blunder from Milkins.

In the first-to-four contest Milkins moved a step closer to the third round when, after a safety error by Higgins and a missed black by ‘the Milkman’, the latter took the re-spotted black by driving it into the opposing centre bag after a safety duel.

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