Higgins Edges Out Lu In Yushan
John Higgins reached the last 32 of the Zhiyuan World Open in Yushan with a 5-4 win over China’s Lu Ning.
World number six Higgins was pushed all the way by a player ranked 56 places below him but eventually came through to set up a meeting with Mark Davis.
Scotland’s Higgins took a 3-1 lead with a top break of 81 then Lu recovered to 3-3. The next two were shared before Higgins got the better of the decider, helped by a run of 48.
World number one Judd Trump also came through a tough test 5-4, beating Sam Craigie. Breaks of 113 and 144 helped give Trump the first three frames and he later led 4-2. Craigie fought back to 4-4 but Trump took the decider with runs of 49 and 42.
Dominic Dale knocked out Ronnie O’Sullivan on Monday but his joy was short-lived as he lost 5-3 to Fergal O’Brien, who made breaks of 104 and 107.
Mark Allen scored a 5-3 win over Ken Doherty but not before he was given a scare by a Doherty fight back. Allen led 4-0 with a top run of 130 then his opponent took three frames in a row, making a 108 in the seventh. But a break of 77 was enough to give Allen the eighth. He now meets Zhang Anda.
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh saw off Zhang Yang in just 65 minutes with top runs of 104, 85, 102 and 65. Jack Lisowski eased to a 5-1 win over Luo Honghao with a top break of 87.