Apart from Higgins, only Mark Williams (twice), Ronnie OSullivan (three times), Steve Davis (six) and Stephen Hendry (seven) have lifted aloft the 82-year-old trophy more than once on the games most famous stage.Its brilliant. To be classed with someone like Ronnie OSullivan, its an unbelievable honour.
Its great to elevate yourself just a little touch to be up there with the great champions. I won it in 98 and its amazing to win it now twice in three years. Shaun missed a couple that he wouldnt normally and I managed to get a gap between us. Murphy agreed: The second session was where it went wrong for me but Johns tactical game was awesome. After both semi-finals had featured stirring if ultimately unsuccessful recoveries the final provided a tame conclusion to a 17-day championship which produced some dramatic finishes, such as Hendrys ninth maximum break in competition and a record 83 centuries. The final lacked drama because the key passage of the contest, the Scots progress from 55 to 125, embracing six frames last night and the first this afternoon, came early. As Murphy only twice won consecutive frames thereafter any incipient recovery was invariably strangled almost at birth. Higgins said fear as well as ambition have motivated him this season: There were young players coming through and I was falling down the rankings which are assessed over two seasons performances. I was 14th on the provisional list at the start of the season and when you see players like Mark Williams and Ken Doherty dropping out of the top 16 you realise youve no divine right to be there. As he resumed today with his six-frame lead, Higgins drew on his experience of the 2007 final two years ago when he started the second day 124 up on Mark Selby. World Snooker Championship 2009 For Pc Full Beam AndThen, subconsciously assuming victory while fully realising it was not mathematically assured, Higgins did not switch his concentration on full beam and with Selbys challenge gathering momentum the gap was reduced to 1210 by the end of a truncated afternoon session. Murphys cause here cannot have been helped by being confronted by tabloid reporters on Friday seeking a reaction to the kiss and tell story published on Sunday. When the choice of shot is marginal his calculation of risk, difficulty, potential gain and alternatives is unfailingly astute. While some thought that OSullivans early exit made this years Crucible show Hamlet without the Prince, the defending champions departure let in younger talents to make a splash with the public. Mark Allen, 23, who beat OSullivan and went on to press Higgins from 144 down to 1713 in their semi-final, cheerfully described his youthful self as like Alex Higgins without the drink but possesses a game reminiscent of a younger Jimmy White. The concluding evening session had the curious feel of a lap of honour before the race was over as Higgins added two of its three frames to secure the 250,000 first prize. Murphy took 125,000 as runner-up and ended the season third in the world rankings with Higgins fourth, Ronnie OSullivan and Stephen Maguire occupying the top two places. World Snooker Championship 2009 For Pc Archive Facebook TwitterTopics World Snooker Championship 2009 World Snooker Championship Snooker John Higgins news Reuse this content Soccer NFL Tennis MLB MLS NBA NHL News Opinion Sport Culture Lifestyle About us Contact us Complaints corrections SecureDrop Work for us Privacy policy Cookie policy Terms conditions Help All topics All writers Digital newspaper archive Facebook Twitter Newsletters Advertise with us Guardian Labs Search jobs Back to top 2020 Guardian News Media Limited or its affiliated companies.
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