John Higgins put on a vintage display to secure a clean sweep of the frames and lead Kyren Wilson 8-0 after the opening session of their second round clash at the Cazoo World Championship in Sheffield.
Scotland’s four-time World Champion Higgins now needs just five more frames for victory. The last time he compiled a first session whitewash at the Crucible was against Jack Lisowski in 2018, he went on to win the match 13-1 and was the eventual runner-up to Mark Williams.
Higgins has had a poor season by his illustrious standards, but the 31-time ranking event winner showed signs of recovering his form with a run to the quarter-finals of the recent WST Classic. He then looked razor sharp in his first round here in Sheffield, where he thrashed David Grace 10-3 in the opening round.
Wilson enjoyed a moment of snooker history in the first round, firing in the 13th maximum break to be made at the Crucible on his way to a 10-5 win over Ryan Day. However, he will have been left shellshocked by the Higgins onslaught this morning.
The Glaswegian came flying out of the traps with consecutive total clearances of 136 and 137 to take the first two frames. Further breaks of 57 and 77 then saw Higgins lead 4-0 at the mid-session. Wilson was kept cold during the opening exchanges and restricted to just 70 points in the first four frames.
When play resumed, Wilson had chances to reduce the deficit, but he fell further behind at 5-0. The Kettering cueman then looked set to take the sixth, before going in off on the final red. Higgins cleared the colours to steal on the black and extend his advantage.
Higgins ruthlessly closed out the session, firing in breaks of 134 and 80 to end 8-0 ahead. They return this evening at 7pm for the second of three scheduled sessions.
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