Impossible fluke leaves Liam Highfield feeling low in defeat to John Higgins at World Open as defending champion makes winning start
Published 16/03/2026 at 10:24 GMT
John Higgins produced a battling display to launch his World Open title defence with a 5-3 win over Liam Highfield in Yushan. The top seed trailed 3-2 to the world No. 90 with Highfield producing serious scoring form with breaks of 131, 64 and 104 giving him a deserved lead. But the match seemed to hinge on a key moment in the seventh frame when Highfield fouled with an impossible fluked pink.
Wild fluke sees Highfield right out of luck against Higgins
Video credit: TNT Sports
John Higgins has seen and done it all in snooker, but even he must have needed a second glance at the spot of bad luck that befell his opening opponent Liam Highfield at the World Open in Yushan.
With the match delicately poised at 3-3 in the race to five on Monday, Highfield led 24-0 when he knocked in a routine red hanging over the green bag in baulk.
The world No. 90 was probably trusting a bit to good fortune for the ideal position on the next colour.
But he was quickly left bemoaning a serious bout of bad luck as the white ball came back down the table to cut in the pink on the black spot from an outrageous angle that barely seemed possible.
Higgins took his chance to produce a 57 break in claiming the frame 67-28, before dominating the eighth to make a winning start to his title defence at the final ranking event of the season in China.
While the defending champion, who defeated Joe O'Connor 10-6 in last year's final, progresses to a meeting with Stan Moody in the last 64 on Tuesday, Highfield is left to wonder what might have been on the journey home.
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Video credit: TNT Sports
Higgins led 1-0 and 2-1 with breaks of 78 and 102, but the Swindon potter followed up a 131 in the second frame with further fine scoring visits of 64 and 104 to edge 3-2 clear.
A 50 run in the sixth frame looked set to earn him a 4-2 lead only for Higgins to produce a trademark 64 on his way to restoring parity at 3-3, before the impossible fluke in the seventh frame marked a turning point in the match.
The win for Higgins also boosts his prospects of qualifying to defend the Tour Championship in Manchester, adding 5000 ranking points to his total on the one-year list.
He is 10th on the 12-player list who qualify for the penultimate ranking event of the season, 21,200 points clear of Xiao Guodong - who closed with a 100 in defeating Ben Mertens 5-3 in his first-round match at the World Open - in 13th place.
The World Open runs between March 16-22, live on TNT Sports and on-demand on discovery+.
Watch and stream the 2025/26 snooker season, including the World Open, live on TNT Sports and discovery+
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