Alan McManus heads into today’s session with a shock 6-3 lead over old pal and former world number one John Higgins in the world championship first round’s all-Scottish tie.
McManus made a sensational start to hold a five-frame advantage but Higgins fought back strongly to reduce the deficit to three in the best-of-19 match.
The pair were sitting with each other when the first-round draw was made last week – yet it was four-time world champion Higgins who was left stewing on his Crucible chair for much of the session.
The match in Sheffield started brightly enough for world number nine Higgins as he knocked in a tricky pink to edge the first frame 62-50. But after two brief visits to the table each, McManus compiled a smooth 87 break to draw all square.
In the third frame Higgins struggled to string a break together and eventually fouled on the black after McManus’s contribution of 47.
World number 35 McManus, who has twice reached the semi-finals at the Crucible, then took a 3-1 lead into the mid-session interval after edging another nervy encounter.
The game carried on in much the same fashion after the break as Glaswegian McManus, nicknamed Angles, chipped away on multiple visits, while the Wizard of Wishaw struggled to find his magic. Former world number six McManus went on to bag the next three frames, including a break of 74 to respond to Higgins’s opening effort of 49.
However, Higgins finished in fine style to reduce the arrears to three and gather some momentum going into today, as former world champion Ken Doherty lies in wait in the second round. Higgins had a big chance to make a 147 break in the eighth frame but left himself a long pot on the 11th red and rattled it around the jaws, the break ending on 80.
A maximum would have been worth £25,000 to the 38-year-old Wishaw man provided no other player matched it.
He followed that by taking the next frame.
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