The Masters - Higgins books semi-final place

Higgins books himself a place in the semis

John Higgins beat fellow-country Graeme Dott 6-3 to book himself a place in this year's Masters semi-finals. 

The current world champion seemed to have improved his cue style and although during the first session he preferred to share frames with his opponent, during the second one he took almost all of them.

An all Scottish-affair was going on at Alexandra Palace from London during the 5^th day of the Masters tournament. John Higgins met an old friend and also a fellow-country, Graeme Dott in his way to the semis.

The 2006 world champion was the one who broke the ice with an outrageous fluked red that helped him take the opener, but Higgins responded right away with a 41 to draw level and a 57 to put his nose in front. However, at the interval, the scoreline was 2-2, after Dott used runs of 41 and 26 to win the 4^th frame.

Dotty goes home

After the break "The Wizard of Wishaw" worked some of his magic and cleared the table with a 75 to get back in the leading position, while a series of 64 and 109 were putting him just one frame away from victory, 5-2.

Dott made a last attempt to come back in the match after winning a scrappy eighth frame, but Higgins applied a decisive treatment under the form of an 89 break to close the deal at 6-3.

So, the first day of the quarter-finals matches has two winners in the person of Judd Trump (see story here) and John Higgins.

Tomorrow's match schedule:

12:30
19:00
*all hours are UK time

TV coverage: