Higgins up and running

'Wizard of Wishaw' eases to first round success

Last updated: 4th October 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Higgins up and running

Higgins: Routine win

First round results:
J Higgins 5-1 M Joyce
M Davis 5-4 M Fu
J Perry 5-2 M Campbell
K Doherty 5-3 M Selby

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John Higgins kicked off the defence of his Grand Prix title with a comprehensive 5-1 victory over Mark Joyce in Glasgow.

The four-time champion was in ruthless mood inside Kelvin Hall, piling up breaks of 135, 99 and 98 to cement his place in the draw for the last 16, which takes place on Tuesday.

Speaking immediately after the win, Higgins told www.worldsnooker.com : "I had a lot of people coming to support, I wanted to get off to a good start.

"I feel really good, I feel everything's there in front of me. I know what I'm doing, there's nothing in the back of my head concerning technique, which has been going on for I don't know how long, so it's good to be feeling like that."

Joining the Scotsman in the second round is England's world number 47 Mark Davis, who followed up his 5-0 thrashing of namesake Steve in qualifying by knocking out world number eight Marco Fu.

The 37-year-old surrendered a 2-0 lead to trail 3-2 but fought back to win three of the next four frames to prevail 5-4.

Joe Perry also ended his run of first round exits, the 'Fen Potter' sealing a 5-2 victory over Marcus Campbell with a 61 clearance in the seventh frame.

Ken Doherty knocked out Mark Selby in the big shock of the day.

Former world champion Doherty has dropped out of the world's top 16 and failed to qualify for this year's World Championship.

However the 40-year-old Dubliner edged to a 5-3 victory over Selby in a scrappy match, winning one bizarre frame 86-85 and taking another following a re-rack after the players became bogged down in safety play.

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