World Championship 2012 (Day 4) - Higginson outclasses Lee

Higginson wins his first Crucible match

Qualifier Andrew Higginson beat world number 8 Stephen Lee by 10-6 after a great battle of cues held here in Sheffield. 

This is the first victory that Higginson has recorded at the Crucible, this being the second time he plays in the World Championship.

Although at first the snooker encounter between Lee and Higginson was a very equilibrated one, the boys sharing frames up until the end of the first session and performing some really high standard quality snooker, at the start of the second and also last session things began to slip away from Lee.

Higginson had a small advantage of 5-4 entering into the last session, an advantage that he extended to 6-4 by taking the 10^th frame. Still Lee cleared the table with a great 102 to restore the one-frame gap with the first chance he got.

What happened next was a typical case of trying to get back into the match, at the same time as your opponent makes the impossible to stop you, so each time Higginson was extending his lead at two frames, Lee was pulling one back.

Big Bear Lee heads home

However, the situation changed from 8-6, when Lee wasn't able to cash the following frame, Higginson's 51 break putting him one step closer to a place in the Last 16.

The next frame saw Andrew hitting in runs of 28 and 61 to end the match and obtain his first ever Crucible victory, a victory that's even more important since it comes from taking on such a tough opponent.

Higginson is meeting another qualifier Jamie Jones, in the Last 16 round on April 29 and 30.

On the other table, Barry Hawkins leads Mark Selby 6-3 after the first session.


Tomorrow's match schedule:

10am

2.30pm

7pm
7 Ali Carter v. Mark Davis
16* Mark Selby 3-6 Barry Hawkins
*denotes the final session

TV coverage: