John Higgins in snooker career cliffhanger at Wuhan Open after summer trip to favourite soap opera - 'I'm really struggling for motivation'

John Higgins won two major titles, at the World Open and Tour Championship, last season in ending a four-year drought in ranking events, but the four-time world champion admits he is lacking "motivation" after turning 50 in May. After completing a 5-1 Wuhan Open victory over Dylan Emery on Monday, the Scot revealed plans for a break. "I don't know if I should have come out here," he said.

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John Higgins completed a 5-1 win over Dylan Emery in the second round of the Wuhan Open on Monday - then revealed he plans to take a month away from the sport after feeling "quite down".

The four-time world champion feels he is lacking "motivation" after travelling to the set of iconic 1980s soap opera Dallas and staying at the home of fictional baddie J.R. Ewing on Southfork Ranch.

The Scot has made a slow start to the new campaign with defeats in the last 16 of the Shanghai Masters, 6-4 to Xiao Guodong, and the last 32 at the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters, 5-4 against Elliot Slessor.

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But he looked more like himself in compiling breaks of 80, 79, 54 and 50 in a 5-1 win over talented Welsh potter Emery, who staved off the whitewash with a run of 70 in the opening frame.

"I'm struggling for the motivation," Higgins told World Snooker Tour media ahead of facing Yuan Sijun for a last-16 spot on Tuesday.

"I think after the big high that I had for my birthday and going to Dallas, I'm really struggling for the motivation.

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"I'll play this event and take a month off and then see where I am after this. I don't know if I should have come to this event. Aye, struggling.

"I'm struggling with my technique, but that is all down to not putting hours in. My technique is all over the place. I'm struggling to put half an hour in.

"You cannot mix it with the best players at this level. There's not many players who have got to this stage of their career and still going over the same things.

"It is tough. I've always said there's a lot worse things happening in the world. I'm always conscious of that, but just now it is tough.

"As you get older, it is putting the effort in on the practice table. It is really tough. You've been in a dark room for 40-odd years.

"Hopefully, I'll come back after a month off, refreshed and reenergised and with a better mindset, but just at the moment everything is quite down."

Higgins said he loved his holiday in Dallas with wife Denise after answering questions on the subject on a celebrity version of Mastermind.

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"It was an incredible trip," he said. "Denise booked out the iconic ranch where we watched it, and we booked the night there just for me and her. You remember all the times watching it with the family. It was surreal.

"We did the JFK tour as well. I never thought Lee Harvey Oswald done it, but he did! I'm sure of that now after seeing all of the pictures.

"It was two massive things in my life that I am so interested in and I got to live it this summer. It was brilliant and I can't match that for Denise's 50th.

"She pulled out all the stops, so I don't know what I'll do. An iconic time out there."

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