2015 Australian Open - Higgins claims Aussie title

John Higgins won 9-8 over Martin Gould in order to lift the Australian Goldfields Open trophy and since the Aussie Open is the first major ranking tournament of the freshly started season, it couldn't have worked any better for the Scotsman.

An epic final of tremendous snooker, guts, pressure, drama and amazing shots revealed itself throughout more than five hours, both players taking their turn into paving their road to victory.

In the end though, there can be only one champion and today the odds have been in favour of the four-time world champion, John Higgins and his classic style of playing top snooker.

"The Wizard of Wishaw" (probably he'll have to change his nickname into the Wizard of Oz, at least for the year to come) took a strong start by feverishly grabbing the first two frames, but his opponent proved to be even stronger by taking the next four with breaks like 101 and 86.

Still, by the end of the first session the scoreboard was blinking 4-4 as Higgins used a 112 break to draw level. This was going to be a tough match to call.

As the match restarted John continued his good run, breaks of 48 and 44 putting him in the leading chair once more, 6-4.
 
But the man who has been rocking around the snooker table all week wasn't going to let him get away that easy, so a perfect 138 clearance was helping Gould pull back a frame.

His comeback was sadly disturbed when during frame 12 a plant went wrong, this giving Higgins the chance to make a break of 68 and re-establish the two-frame advantage at 7-5, but the Englishman didn't give in.

Two breaks (55 and 58) plus one hell of a battle got him the much-wanted 7-7 scoreline. 

When Higgins used a 60 break to go one away from victory and got the better chance during frame 16 all seemed lost for the "Pinner Potter", but a missed red down the cushion offered Gouldy a lifeline, the Englishman forcing a decider by winning the frame on the black!!!

Higgins knew that this was turning into a "the first one in wins" affair, so when the snooker Gods granted him the opportunity he took it. A break of 89 was sealing his victory and getting him the golden trophy.

Interestingly enough 21 years ago, John Higgins won his first pro-tournament in Melborne, Australia so this is definitely a nice way to remember how much he has developed as a player through the years.

Also, Higgins equalled O'Sullivan in winning ranking tournaments (27) so even more to be proud of. 

An ecstatic Scotsman revealed that this was "one of the best finals I've been involved into" and happily received the trophy along with the medal and the A$75,000 cheque.


Next tournament will take place in Latvia, Riga – the Riga Open – starting on July 29.