Higgins Off to a Flyer in Title Defence

John Higgins made a superb start to the defence of his 888.com World Championship at the Crucible today.

Higgins was expecting a tough first round clash with two-times runner-up Matthew Stevens and trailed 2-1 early on as Stevens came close to a 147 maximum break. But the Scot hit back to win six frames in a row to build a 7-2 lead in the best-of-19 match, leaving him needing just three more in this evening's session.

Stevens has not lost a first round match in 10 visits to the Crucible and looked set for an explosive start when he potted 14 reds and 14 blacks in the third frame. The Welshman fluked the 14th black while attempting to move the final red from tight on the cushion above the middle pocket, and then narrowly failed to pot the red down the rail. The 30-year-old missed out on the £147,000 on offer for a maximum but the break of 112 nevertheless put him 2-1 ahead after he had taken the opening frame with breaks of 46 and 28, Higgins replying in the second with an 88 clearance.

Stevens had several chances to go 3-1 ahead in the final frame before the mid-session interval but failed to capitalize, allowing Higgins to level at 2-2 with breaks of 27 and 33. After the interval Higgins came out firing on all cylinders to win all five frames. A run of 83 gave him the fifth frame and breaks of 36 and 54 in the next meant Stevens had gone two frames without scoring a single point. Higgins took the next 67-42 and breaks of 85 and 60 in the final two of the session gave the two-time winner a commanding lead.

On the other table, Australian Neil Robertson built a 7-2 lead over 1995 finalist Nigel Bond, knocking in breaks of 70 and 52 before Bond finished an otherwise scrappy session with a 125 clearance.