JOHN HIGGINS has won 26 tournaments during his professional career but few will have been more satisfying than his latest success. By beating Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-9 on the last black in the most gripping of contests, the Scot became the final winner of the Saga Insurance Masters at Wembley Conference Centre last night.
Relying on the fighting spirit that typified his approach all week, Higgins fought back from the brink of almost certain defeat to deliver, given its timing, one of the finest frame and match-winning clearances in the history of the sport.
O’Sullivan, who contributed immensely to an epic battle, opened the deciding frame with a 60 break but missed a tricky cut-back red to a balk pocket. Even then, the world No 1 held all the aces but Higgins refused to capitulate. The balls were far from ideally positioned but Higgins held himself together, audaciously doubled the last red and coolly cleared the colours to prevail.
Higgins, who won his other Masters title in 1999, has compiled five 147s but that 64 clearance will surely go down as his most crucial break. “I’ve dug deep in every match here and I’m really proud of myself,” he said. “Ronnie is a class act and to beat him on an occasion like this means an awful lot to me. I’ve been involved in many tussles but for sheer pressure nothing could compare with that.”
His monetary reward was £125,000 but the boost to his self-belief cannot be calculated. Not merely the result but the manner in which it was achieved spoke volumes about a player who not only possesses rare natural ability but a steely nerve to complement it.
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The usual background arena muzak was playing before the match but Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’ would have been more appropriate. Nostalgia filled the air as Wembley staged its 434th and last snooker match. What a contest it was.
In his Sixties classic, Dylan sang “keep your eyes wide, the chance won’t come again” and 2,700 pairs of eyes, a capacity crowd, witnessed the end of a golden chapter in the sport’s leading invitation event that featured a twist in the tale no one could have foreseen.
After a day of shifting emotions and transformation in the fortunes of both, Higgins swelled his prize-money for the season to £202,500 and replaced O’Sullivan, who won £60,000, at the top of the money list. He did so after a send-off for Wembley that could not have been bettered.
Last year, solely because of the outlawing of tobacco sponsorship, Embassy’s association with the World Championship was severed after 30 years but at least this year’s championship will return to the Crucible, Sheffield, in April, as it has since 1977. Snooker’s cream has assembled at Wembley since 1979 but the auditorium is being demolished in July and efforts have begun to secure an alternative venue for 2007. The new home of the Masters will have much to live up to.
Wembley has produced many memorable moments. From Kirk Stevens, dazzling in his white suit with a 147 break in 1984, to Stephen Hendry recovering from 8-2 adrift to beat a disbelieving Mike Hallett 9-8 in the 1991 final.
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Cliff Thorburn, the Canadian player, adored Wembley and won the Masters three times in the Eighties, Dennis Taylor delighted in beating his arch rival Alex Higgins 9-8 for the title in 1987 and in more recent times Paul Hunter completed a colourful hat-trick of successes.
Yet, in terms of pure standard, O’Sullivan’s 10-3 win over Higgins in last year’s final stands alone. Yesterday, O’Sullivan was in the groove early, making consecutive total clearances of 138 and 139, the latter good enough to qualify him for the event’s £10,000 highest break award. Higgins recovered to lead 5-3, 7-5 and 8-7, missed the black using the rest on the verge of leading 9-7 but, refusing to dwell on it, remained focused to the last.