Sussex snooker star toasts win over four-time champ John Higgins

Snooker star Jimmy Robertson produced one of the best wins of his career en route to the semi-finals of a prestigious televised tournament.
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The Bexhill potter beat four-time world champion John Higgins 6-4 in the quarter-finals of the Cazoo Players Championship in Wolverhampton last Friday afternoon.

Robertson told wst.tv afterwards: "That win means everything. It was a massive match and a massive occasion. Beating him in an ITV event on the one-table set-up is huge for me and hopefully it can give me a lot of confidence.

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"These guys are the best in the world, but you have to go out there and show you aren't scared of them. That is the main thing I've shied away from over the years. To have a chance of beating them you need to take the game to them and attack them."

Jimmy RobertsonJimmy Robertson
Jimmy Robertson

World number six Higgins - a 31-time ranking event winner - went into the match as a hot favourite and the Scot clinched the opening two frames with breaks of 52 and 65.

But the 46-year-old missed the final black for a 3-0 lead and Robertson made him pay by taking that frame - in which he'd earlier made a run of 58 - and the next two with breaks of 57 and 59.

A 68 brought Higgins level at 3-3 only for Robertson to regain the advantage with a run of 102 in the next. A 57 in frame eight took Robertson to the brink of victory at 5-3 before Higgins fashioned a break of 80 to make it 5-4.

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Robertson eventually got over the line after a dramatic 10th frame. Higgins needed two snookers at one stage and although he got the penalty points he required, Robertson sunk the brown to wrap things up.

The 35-year-old had won six frames in a row to defeat Scottish Open champion Luca Brecel, ranked 16th, 6-1 in the first round two days earlier.

Belgian cueman Brecel opened up with an 88, but it was all Robertson thereafter and two breaks of 51, a 91, a 56 and a 60 helped him run out a comfortable winner.

Robertson's progress was eventually halted by a 6-1 loss against world number four Neil Robertson in the last four on Saturday night.

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The local man won frame four on a respotted black and there were several other close frames in a hard-fought battle, but the Australian came out on top and he went on to clinch the title 24 hours later.

The two victories Jimmy Robertson secured in an event contested by just the top 16 players this season moved him up 11 places from 38th to 27th in the world rankings.

It's been quite a turnaround in fortunes for a player who was a frame away from losing his place on the World Snooker Tour less than a year ago.

Robertson, who started working with mind coach AP O'Neill at the back end of last season, has now reached two semi-finals and a quarter-final during the current campaign.

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The 2018 European Masters champion added: "I've struggled over the years with certain things going on in my head.

"I don't always show it on the table, but there's all sorts happening mentally. It was time to start working with somebody and it is really doing me good at the moment."

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