Higgins Finds Another Gear When It Matters Most to Edge Murphy in Crucible Semi-Final
The Old Master Does It Again
There is a moment in almost every John Higgins match — you learn to watch for it if you follow him closely enough — where the shoulders settle, the tempo slows just slightly, and something shifts. He stops reacting and starts dictating. It happened again on Friday evening at the Crucible Theatre, and when it did, Shaun Murphy's hopes of ending the day level took a quiet but decisive blow.
Higgins heads into Saturday's concluding session with a 13-11 lead over Murphy, a margin that felt far from inevitable as the two players traded frames with relentless intensity throughout the evening. That the four-time champion ended the night on the front foot — and for the first time in this entire tournament finished a session in the lead — says everything about where his game is right now.
A Session That Had Everything
The pair had resumed at 8-8 after Thursday's play, and Murphy, not for the first time in his career, proved an awkward, combative opponent from the very first visit. The 2005 world champion drew first blood with a composed break of 60, moving ahead for the first time since the early stages of the match and giving himself something to build on.
Higgins, though, is not a man who stays down for long. He pegged Murphy back immediately with runs of 44 and 55, and then pinched another frame with a cleverly-placed snooker on the brown — the kind of tactical intervention that reminds you this is not simply a potting contest when Higgins is involved. Murphy responded with an excellent 82 to keep the scores level at the mid-session interval, and the drama showed no sign of easing after the break.
The two frames that followed were a testament to both men's character. Higgins constructed a fine 63, only for Murphy to respond with a superb century break from the very first shot of the next frame — potting his way around the table almost before Higgins had returned to his seat. At 12-12, a share of the session looked like the fairest outcome. It would have been hard to argue otherwise.
Then Higgins found that gear.
Clinical When It Counts
A run of 70 steadied him, and then, as the shadows lengthened over Sheffield, he signed off for the evening with a composed 101 — his first century of the entire match. Two frames in a row to close out the session. The 13-11 scoreline does not fully convey how commanding that finish felt inside the theatre.
Seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry, watching from the commentary box, was not surprised. "It's what John Higgins has done in every match this championship," Hendry said on BBC Two. "He's got better as each match has gone on and played his best snooker near the end. He knows when the business end of these games are and he just finds gears — that's what he's always done."
Former semi-finalist Joe Perry was equally impressed. "That's the best John Higgins has looked in this semi-final," he noted. "Since the interval that's breaks of 63, 70 and a century — clinical, one-frame snooker."
History Within Reach
The stakes could hardly be higher for the Scot, who turns 51 later this month. A place in the final would see Higgins draw level with Stephen Hendry's record of nine World Championship final appearances — a mark that has stood as one of snooker's seemingly untouchable landmarks. He has already demonstrated throughout this tournament that age is no barrier to excellence on the baize, and Friday evening's finish only reinforced that belief.
Murphy, for his part, has been anything but a passive participant. The Englishman has refused to cede ground cheaply at any stage, and his century in the penultimate frame of the evening showed that his own ambitions are very much alive. Two frames is a slender lead in a best-of-33 contest, and Murphy will know that a strong start on Saturday afternoon could shift the momentum back in his direction.
The final session gets underway at 14:30 BST on Saturday. The winner will face either China's Wu Yize or Northern Ireland's Mark Allen — two players currently locked in their own absorbing semi-final — in Sunday's showpiece final. For Higgins, history is one session away. Whether Murphy has one final twist to offer is the question that will keep fans tuned in.
One thing feels certain: if Higgins finds that gear again, it may already be too late to stop him.
