John Higgins delivers scathing assessment of form after Scottish Open win – ‘Poor, really poor’

John Higgins gave a damning assessment of his current form after beating He Guoqiang in the second round of the Scottish Open.

The 48-year-old is one of the greatest players in the sport’s history but cut a frustrated figure in Edinburgh despite dominating his young Chinese opponent to book a last-32 meeting with Ricky Walden.

Higgins made four half-century breaks in five frames and even got 65 points into a 147 but was in no mood to celebrate a win that kept his hopes of lifting his home title alive.

“Poor, really poor,” was Higgins’ assessment when he spoke to Eurosport’s Alan McManus. “I’m just lucky he didn’t put me under any pressure really because I was all over the place.

“My positional play was non-existent, yeah it was bad.”

His annoyance spilled over in the final frame when he overcut a red with the winning line in sight as he slammed the butt of his cue into the ground.

It was an uncharacteristic reaction and one which mattered little in terms of the final result, but it showed the extent of his struggles during a match that featured a raft of careless errors.

“[I’m] just maybe not confident at all, decelerating on a lot of shots,” he added. “I shouldn’t have hit my cue, but I was just so angry.

“I know what’s wrong, I just need to get it sorted. [I need to get on the] practice table, [sort] my technique and my cue. The whole range of things.

“I’m really upset just now with some of the stuff I’m playing.”

On his 147 attempt that included nine reds and eight blacks, he was once again highly critical of himself for the manner in which it broke down.

“It was so amateurish the positional shot that I played. You don’t see the black I played earlier on but it was pathetic. Those things bounce about in your mind,” he said when looking back at replays.

“Any player who has a lot of bad stuff in there, that’s all you really focus on. I know it’s tough and you should try and focus on…

“When you look at all the best players they hit those shots confidently, you can’t dribble them in nowadays at this level, and I normally dribble them in. It shows you where I am.”