{"id":196951,"date":"2026-04-27T17:27:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T17:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/higgins-recovers-to-beat-osullivan-in-crucible-epic\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T17:27:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T17:27:14","slug":"higgins-recovers-to-beat-osullivan-in-crucible-epic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/higgins-recovers-to-beat-osullivan-in-crucible-epic\/","title":{"rendered":"Higgins recovers to beat O&#8217;Sullivan in Crucible epic"},"content":{"rendered":"<div >\n<p ><b >Four-time winner John Higgins produced a sensational recovery from 8-3 and 9-4 down to defeat Ronnie O&#8217;Sullivan 13-12 in a final-frame Crucible epic to reach the World Championship quarter-finals.<\/b><\/p>\n<p >Seven-time champion O&#8217;Sullivan was seeking an eighth title to set a new outright record in the modern era, and twice held five-frame leads in Sunday&#8217;s second session.<\/p>\n<p >But Higgins won the last three frames on Sunday and maintained that form by taking the first three on Monday as O&#8217;Sullivan lost six successive frames at the Crucible for only the fifth time.<\/p>\n<p >In a high-quality thriller, played out in front of an enthralled crowd, O&#8217;Sullivan won the 20th and 21st frames to regain the lead at 11-10.<\/p>\n<p >In surely the match of the tournament, and one of the best in the 49 years at the Sheffield theatre, Higgins won two frames in a row to move one away at 12-11, but O&#8217;Sullivan&#8217;s break of 81 forced a decider.<\/p>\n<p >Higgins had the first chance but missed a red into the middle at 16-0 to give O&#8217;Sullivan a lifeline, before the Englishman could only score eight points and failed to pot a red.<\/p>\n<p >The Scot then made a break of 49 on his way to sealing a match-winning frame, with both players getting a standing ovation as the tie finished.<\/p>\n<p >The 50-year-olds are two of snooker&#8217;s fabled &#8216;Class of &#8217;92&#8217;, along with 51-year-old Mark Williams, with the trio having 14 world titles between them.<\/p>\n<p >Higgins, the champion in 1998, 2007, 2009 and 2011, will now play either 2010 winner Neil Robertson or world number 13 Chris Wakelin.<\/p>\n<p >Robertson leads 10-6, with that match played to a finish in Monday&#8217;s evening session from 19:00 BST.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >While Higgins was beating O&#8217;Sullivan on table one, there was also drama on table two with four-time champion Mark Selby losing 13-11 against China&#8217;s Wu Yize.<\/p>\n<p >Wu, 22, is aiming to become the second Chinese player to win the world title after compatriot Zhao Xintong last year.<\/p>\n<p >Ranked 10th, Wu claimed his first ranking tournament at the International Championship in November, with Selby tipping him as a future world champion.<\/p>\n<p >Wu would become the youngest player to win a World Championship since a 21-year-old Stephen Hendry claimed the first of his seven titles in 1990.<\/p>\n<p >In the quarter-finals, Wu will face either world number one Judd Trump or Iran&#8217;s Hossein Vafaei and is in the opposite half of the draw to Zhao so a first all-China final is still possible.<\/p>\n<p >&#8220;Wu is young, still loving the game and not too many battle scars &#8211; good luck to the boy, I really like him,&#8221; said Selby.<\/p>\n<p >&#8220;I think he is a World Champion in the making, it could be this year, but if not this year, I do think in his career he&#8217;ll probably win it at some stage &#8211; he is that good.<\/p>\n<p >&#8220;When he is on a run, he is hard to stop.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Selby, 42, started the match with century breaks of 123 and 124, but trailed 9-7 going into the final session, with Wu then stretching his advantage to 10-7. <\/p>\n<p >The next two went to Selby, but Wu took both the 20th and 21st frames to move one from victory. <\/p>\n<p >Selby again won two in a row, including a break of 95 in the 22nd frame, but could not complete the comeback as Wu took the 24th frame for victory.<\/p>\n<p >Earlier on, in frame 21, Selby showed his frustration by hitting the cue against the table after missing a red.<\/p>\n<p >&#8220;It was just a combination of everything, just missing silly balls and it&#8217;s difficult when you don&#8217;t know how the balls will come off the cushion,&#8221; said Selby. <\/p>\n<p >&#8220;I felt I was swimming against the tide and every single nudge went against me. I missed more than too many balls to win that match.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Four-time winner John Higgins produced a sensational recovery from 8-3 and 9-4 down to defeat Ronnie O&#8217;Sullivan 13-12 in a final-frame Crucible epic to reach the World Championship quarter-finals. Seven-time champion O&#8217;Sullivan was seeking an eighth title to set a new outright record in the modern era, and twice held five-frame leads in Sunday&#8217;s second [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-196951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v18.1 (Yoast SEO v18.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Higgins recovers to beat O&#039;Sullivan in Crucible epic - Tahrir News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/higgins-recovers-to-beat-osullivan-in-crucible-epic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Higgins recovers to beat O&#039;Sullivan in Crucible epic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Four-time winner John Higgins produced a sensational recovery from 8-3 and 9-4 down to defeat Ronnie O&#8217;Sullivan 13-12 in a final-frame Crucible epic to reach the World Championship quarter-finals. 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