John Higgins back with two centuries

John Higgins

World No.2 John Higgins, back playing in Britain after serving a six-month ban, made a promising start in his first-round match in the UK championship at Telford.

The Wizard of Wishaw came to the tournament in decent nick from the PTC events in Germany and the Czech Republic, opened with scores of 105 and 100 in the opening two frames but could not get clear of Stephen Lee after the opening session of their match.

Lee levelled the frame score at 2-2 and then Higgins went ahead again when he took the fifth frame. But his opponent clawed his way through the sixth with a break of 61 but the former world champion squared the match at 4-4.

Ding Junhui beat Higgins 10-8 in last year's final and he began his defence of the title when he defeated Matthew Stevens 9-4. Ding had overwhelmed Stevens in the first session to lead 7-1 and then took the first frame of the evening session. But Stevens produced a reply that got the score to 8-4 before Ding closed out with a match-winning 98.

"It was a hard draw because Matthew is playing well again and he's been practising a lot," Ding told worldsnooker.com. "I played well, I took my chances. I lost my concentration for a while tonight so I'm not happy about that. My safety is better than it was before, I am not feeling pressure I'm just enjoying the matches."

Ding’s victory sets up a last-16 clash with Mark Allen who beat Tom Ford 9-5, making three centuries, including a clearance of 141. Mark Selby, the Masters champion, came back from finding himself 3-1 down against Ricky Walden - winning five of the seven frames of the evening session - to win 9-6.

Paul Wheeler

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