Higgins warms up for tougher battles with classy 136 break

Four-time world champion John Higgins produced a superb break of 136 on way to demolishing fellow-Scot Jamie Burnett 4-2 and enter the second round of the Indian Open World Ranking Snooker Championship here today.
On a day when former Irish world champion Ken Doherty crashed out, beaten 4-2 by Northern Ireland's Joe Swail in another first round match, the recently held Welsh Open champion Higgins -- the world number 12 and sixth seed here -- came up with his stunning break, the highest so far in the event that commenced yesterday.
Higgins' brilliant run during which he cued with precision came in the sixth frame to sew up the match after his rival, ranked 47th in the world and holder of the rare snooker break record of 148 (after having taken a free ball as an extra red), raised visions of a fight-back in the previous frame that he won 72-0 with a timely break of 49.

Higgins won 68-15, 65(52)-44, 54-6, 34-53, 0-72, 136(136)-0 and his century break is the fourth in the tournament and second today after Englishman Mathew Selt's 103 during his 4-0 rout of compatriot Joel Walker in another opening round tie.
Higgins, who won the fourth and last of his world titles in 2011, will meet Jamie Cope of England, who defeated Fraser Patrick of Scotland 4-2 in another first round tie, in the next round.
Earlier in the day, Swail, with a world ranking of 68, defeated the 42nd world-ranked Doherty 72-9, 19-95, 71-0, 80-23, 37-92, 74-15, 37-29 to earn a shot at Englishman Robert Milkins, seeded seventh here with a ranking of 16, in round two.

Milkins got the better of fellow-English professional Mike Dunn 4-2 in another first round match.
Swail brought up two half century breaks of 62 and 71 that fetched him the first and third frames and struck two crucial runs of 37 and 29 in the sixth to seal his rival's fate in five minutes under two hours.
Doherty, who defeated Stephen Hendry 18-12 in the 1997 World Championship title clash to become only the second non-English player to win the world title after Cliff Thorburn, could not stitch a single half century break in the match.