John Higgins has refuted claims by Stephen Hendry that he is playing too slowly, following his 6-4 loss to Judd Trump in the semi-finals of the Players Championship in Telford. Hendry described Higgins as a “tough watch” as he fell 3-1 behind before recovering strongly to level at 4-4, with Trump producing peak form to win the final two frames. The world No. 1 faces Kyren Wilson in Sunday’s final.
John Higgins has hit back strongly at Stephen Hendry after his fellow Scot accused him of being a “tough watch” during a narrow 6-4 defeat to Judd Trump in the Players Championship semi-finals.
Hendry was scathing about Higgins’ performance during the first four frames of a tense contest in Telford on Saturday night.
“All I can do is say what I see,” said Hendry on ITV. “I’d never thought I’d say this, but John Higgins is a tough watch at the moment. Whether he is low on confidence, he is not playing well at all.
“Thirty-two seconds a shot is not good. It is almost like he is getting in his own way.
“The difference is when Judd gets in, everything just flows. Every shot with John is a pint of blood.
“He’s putting so much effort into even the easiest shots, and that is a sign to me of someone low on confidence.
“It’s not the way the great John Higgins plays, but at the minute they are just leagues apart these two players.”
Higgins recovered strongly after the break to level at 4-4 with contributions of 107 and 54, and should have led 5-4, with Trump recovering from 48-6 behind to pinch the ninth frame on the pink with a clinical 61. Trump then dominated the 10th frame as a timely 53 helped prevent a final-frame decider.
Hendry had earlier claimed he was “disappointed” with the “cautious” approach of Higgins in his 6-5 win over former Shoot Out winner Chris Wakelin in the first round at the Telford International Centre.
“I’ve heard people like Hendry now saying that I’ve got to speed up. He’s a cracker, so he is,” said Higgins, who turned professional alongside Ronnie O’Sullivan and Mark Williams in 1992.
“When you get a little bit older, you are just a little bit cautious. You are trying to work on a couple of things.
“You are nearly 50 and are still competing with the boys. I bet you wish they were doing the same, but hey ho.
“Just don’t get too negative, think of the good things and hopefully, good things will happen.”
Higgins is not the first player to respond to seven-time world champion Hendry’s comments as a pundit, with Mark Williams and Neil Robertson both offering derision in return.
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While Trump progresses to a final meeting with Wilson on Sunday for the £150,000 top prize, Higgins will take plenty of encouragement from his display in troubling Trump for large swatches of an absorbing contest before a sell-out crowd.
He has enjoyed some fine form in recent weeks after ending a four-year title drought by winning the World Open with a 10-6 win over Joe O’Connor, before being edged out 5-3 by Shaun Murphy at the World Grand Prix quarter-finals in Hong Kong.
His consistency means he will be seeded fourth for the 12-player Tour Championship in Manchester later this month (March 31-April 6), where he will face Xiao Guodong or Wu Yize in the last eight.
“I should have went 5-4 up there, but played a couple of bad positional shots,” said Higgins, who remains without a win over Trump in a ranking event since 2018.
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“But he just does what Judd does. These top boys, playing Judds and [Mark] Selbys this year, they are fabulous players.
“I should have went 5-4, but I never. He played great, but then you start thinking of the negatives like the third frame when I could have went 2-1 in front.
“But I should be taking the positives from it because I thoroughly enjoyed the game. It was a great atmosphere, brilliant playing the best player in the world and I gave him a good run.
“I’ve got a few things to work on before the Tour Championship, and the World Championship, so I can’t be too despondent.
“Well played to Judd, and I hope it is a good final between him and Kyren. And I move onto the next one.”
