John Higgins moving ‘onwards and upwards’ after thumping David Grace

John Higgins was pleased with his performance after thumping David Grace 10-3 to reach the second round of the World Snooker Championship for the 25th time.

The four-time world champion began Tuesday’s afternoon session with a commanding 7-2 lead and needed just an hour to book his place in the last 16, where he will meet either Kyren Wilson or Ryan Day.

The 47-year-old Scot won the first frame of the session with a break of 114 and looked to be cruising in the second at 48-0 up before Yorkshireman Grace hit back with a phenomenal counter clearance to make it 8-3.

Higgins won the next frame with a break of 97 to edge closer to victory before closing things out with a classy 124 to win 10-3.

Higgins said: “Coming into today it would have taken a bit of a collapse from me not to get over the line.

“But I was pleased with the way I was hitting the ball today. I’m feeling good about scoring. If I get my chance I feel as if I can go on and do some breaks here, which I think you always need to do here.

“You need to have sessions here against the best players where you can go on a bit of a run and knock in some breaks.

“And I think I’m capable of that this year, so onwards and upwards.”

Grace paid tribute to Higgins, saying: “He’s one of the all-time greats, full stop.

“He was just hitting it so nicely. He was getting the white to talk, basically. He was getting it to wherever he wanted it. That’s the sign that you’re hitting it well.”

In the morning session, Jack Lisowski took a 6-3 lead against Noppon Saengkham as play resumed on table one following Monday’s ‘Just Stop Oil’ protest which saw orange powder tipped over the cloth.

Twelfth seed Lisowski opened up an early 3-1 lead before Saengkham won a nip-and-tuck fifth frame to close the gap to one.

The Englishman stretched his lead to two once more after taking advantage of a wonderful snooker behind the yellow to win another close frame and go 4-2 up.

Saengkham got back to within one frame thanks to a break of 72 but Lisowski ended the session three clear after winning two frames in succession.

Gary Wilson raced into a 7-2 lead against Elliot Slessor on the other table, and the pair will return to complete their match on Tuesday evening.