2015 Welsh Open (the final) - Higgins sets new record after winning Welsh crown

John Higgins - the 2015 Welsh Open champion

John Higgins beat Ben Woollaston by a determined 9-3 scoreline to win the 2015 BetVictor Welsh Open and set a new snooker record: he is the first player to win this tournament four times!

But putting aside the record breaking, today's victory has an even bigger importance for "The Wizard of Wishaw" since it puts an end to a very long trophy drought. 

Last time Higgins won a tournament it was three years ago, when he defeated Judd Trump in the final of the 2012 Shanghai Masters. And what a final that was!

Although the Scotsman didn't perform like in his heyday, he did bring determination, guts, eagerness to win and that splendid safety game that he's so well-known for, to the table.

Ben Woollaston - the 2015 Welsh Open runner-up

After leading the Leicester-man, Ben Woollaston by 5-3 after a pretty tense first session, Higgins cruised on towards the victory in one straight line.

The first two frames of the evening were scrappy affairs, but they were won fair and square with runs of just 46 and 28, while the remaining two were conquered with a more fluent cueing under the form of breaks like 68 and 83.

Clearly over the moon with his win, John talked about how important is to be victorious after such a long time, that one must "keep believing" even if things go wrong and joked about being proud to have some sort of a record since Stephen Hendry has so many.

Happy family

To be honest it was good to see the Scotsman smile, but then again it's always nice to see a player happy, and it goes without saying that we are grateful that John has ears, otherwise his smile would have been all around his face going round and round. 

That being said, even if we had a pretty short final, there's no time for rest as in just a few days’ time we are moving to Poland for the magnificent Gdynia Open. See you there ... or here to be more precise! ;-)