India Open Snooker: Higgins survives Xintong scare

VISAKHAPATNAM: Fancied John Higgins, the world No.2 and the biggest name in the field, overcame China's Zhao Xintong 4-3 in the first round of the fourth Indian Open world-ranking snooker tournament at the Novotel here on Wednesday. The Chinese cueist, a sure-fire potter, surprised the four-time world champion early on, punishing Higgins' errors with breaks of 73 in the first and a 78 in the second to raise visions of an upset.
However, Higgins, who missed a couple of shots in the first two frames, woke up from his slumber to take the next two. Making the most of Xintong's poor safety, the Scot made breaks of 77 and 89 to level scores at 2-2.
Despite his opponent's break of 60 in the fifth frame and trailing 24-62 with just 35 on the table, Higgins snookered Xintong behind the blue and then made capital of the Chinese's poor safety on the green to make it 3-2.
Xintong, who looked the better player for the good part of the match, took the sixth with a break of 60, but Higgins came up a fine 87 to advance to the second round.