Stephen Hendry explains why he is 'disappointed' with John Higgins despite epic first-round win over Chris Wakelin
Published 21/03/2025 at 11:42 GMT
Stephen Hendry has urged John Higgins to be "more aggressive" as his fellow Scot bids for glory at the Players Championship in Telford. Higgins survived an epic battle with Chris Wakelin in the first round to seal a 6-5 victory on the final pink. He meets Xiao Guodong in the last eight after Xiao edged Wu Yize by the same scoreline. The winner faces world No. 1 Judd Trump in the semi-finals.
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John Higgins will need to be more "aggressive" if he wants to claim his second title in three events at the Players Championship in Telford, according to fellow Scottish snooker icon Stephen Hendry.
The four-time world champion – who ended a four-year ranking title drought with victory at the World Open in Yushan earlier this month – showed all his fighting qualities with an epic 6-5 win over Chris Wakelin in the first round of the Players.
Despite hitting back from 3-1 to set up a quarter-final meeting with Xiao Guodong at 1pm on Friday afternoon, Hendry feels he will have to play better to remain in the frame for title glory at the Telford International Centre.
"I think John needs to pick up the pace a bit, and be a bit more aggressive," said seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry on ITV.
"Especially after coming off a win at the World Open, I was disappointed with the way John played the other day.
"It was very cautious, quite slow average shot time for him.
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"So I will be looking for a bit more positivity from him."
Higgins is on the brink of securing his spot as fourth seed for the 12-player Tour Championship in Manchester (March 31-6 April) after ending Wakelin's hopes with his highest break of only 61.
Xiao will need to overcome Higgins and world No. 1 Judd Trump, who whitewashed Masters champion Shaun Murphy 6-0 on Thursday evening, in the semi-finals on Saturday night to deny Higgins a spot in the quarter-finals of the season's penultimate event.
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That would see Higgins avoid having to play an extra round with four rematches from the Players Championship on the cards.
Unless he reaches the final, Wuhan Open champion Xiao faces a potential rematch with Wu in the first round.
The other matches are already finalised with Mark Selby taking on Si Jiahui, Mark Williams facing Ding Junhui and Murphy playing against Barry Hawkins.
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