JOHN HIGGINS suffered a double blow in Bournemouth last night as Tony Jones dashed his hopes of winning the Grand Prix title and becoming provisional world number one.
Higgins lost 5-3 to the 1991 European Open champion who played out of his skin for the first four frames of their intriguing last 16 match. "I knew Tony was a good player but I didn't realise just how good," said Higgins.
Jones, down to 63 in the world rankings, began the contest with breaks of 53, 61, 46, 50 and 79 to" establish a 4-0 mid session advantage.
When the match resumed Higgins put his problems behind him to fire in a fifth frame clearance to the pink of 125. He missed the black to overtake James Wattana's 131 as the highest break of the televised phases.
His recovery gained momentum with a run of 70 to go 4-2 behind and a second half century cut Jones's lead to just one with two to play. Luckily for the underdog he fluked a red to open a break of 53 that eventually proved decisive during a 35 minute war of attrition in the eighth frame.
"I felt really good out there and if you feel good that's half the battle," confirmed Jones who meets another Scot, Euan Henderson, for a place in the semi finals. "The way I started off I thought I was Stephen Hendry," said Jones, responsible for the defeat of Jimmy White earlier in this tournament of shocks.
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