The four world titles out of five finals played, the only loss being against his “all time” rival Ronnie O’Sullivan, place John Higgins in a ranking of all time world titles on the 5th position, one place behind Ronnie, actually they are the only players still in activity which may change in the near future the podium of that ranking. The Scottish player won the Welsh Open earlier this year, 9-3 versus Woollaston, at the beginning of April losing the China Open quarter-final, 4-5 to the detriment of Ding. What impressed me is the power Higgins still has to built winning breaks, although he saw himself losing matches in which his break building was great, such as this year Master’s last 16 round, lost the meeting with Mark Allen 4-6 , although John built the breaks of 104, 132, 59, 96 and 120.

Milkins beat two amateur players 10-6 in the first two rounds of this year World Snooker Championship qualifiers, while on Wednesday he managed to win in deciding frame against Andrew Higginson making breaks of 104, 70, 57, 63, 63, 82 and 65. I consider the match was lost by Andrew as he proved too weak, losing crucial frames 11, attempting a tricky pink to leave it over the pocket for an easy pink-black clearance, 13, on the respotted black leaving a double after the opening shot and 14th, after a battle on the colors and two fouls at the green ball. Milkins won last 4 meetings he had with John Higgins, perhaps this explain the high odds on Higgins, nevertheless I see no chance for the English player to advance.

H2H: 4-4 http://www.cuetracker.net/Head-to-Head/John-Higgins/Robert-Milkins
Prediction: Higgins to advance.
Betting perspectives: Higgins@1.5 and Higgins the leader after first 4 frames@2.4 at Bet365

 
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