Higgins open to Crucible switch

John Higgins says he would not object to snooker’s World Championship being moved away from Sheffield.
Scotland’s two-time winner says it could be time the event had a new home after 31 years at the Crucible Theatre.
“I’ve won twice and also lost a final in Sheffield and they were great times, but I’m not sentimental,” said Higgins.
“[But] if something bigger and better comes along and maybe the money could go up, there’s no way that we should stay there.”
Head of World Snooker Sir Rodney Walker says he has been approached about switching the event to among other places, China.
And Higgins, who won his fourth Grand Prix Championship on Sunday, believes it may be time to take the World Championship overseas.
“If China are going to come in and give more money compared to the Crucible, I’m all for it,” added Higgins.
“We’ve got to move ahead and it’s a bigger world now. There are so many more countries out there that like snooker, whereas 20 years ago it was maybe just the UK that really liked the game.
My main aim this year was to come in and try to win again and try to get my name mentioned alongside the great players
“There are so many countries involved in trying to take the game of snooker on to another level and we should be embracing that.
“Hopefully, it can do well for all the players because that’s what all the players want. We just want to be playing in more tournaments and, I suppose, winning more money.”
Meanwhile, Higgins has revealed the motivation for his quest to regain a place among snooker’s elite.
“It’s a bit of vanity, I think,” said the 33-year-old, who has seen himself recently eclipsed by O’Sullivan, Mark Selby, Shaun Murphy and compatriot Stephen Maguire.
“You hear everybody saying I used to be part of the ‘big four’, with Hendry, O’Sullivan, Williams and there’s other people talking about the big four now.
“Obviously, Ronnie’s still there, but with new ones: Selby, Murphy and Maguire.
“You think to yourself, ‘I want to be spoken about in that breath because I still think I’m good enough to be spoken about in that company’.
“That was my main aim this year, to come in and try to win again and try to get my name mentioned alongside the great players. Because it’s not nice when you fall away and people are not really expecting you to do anything.
“This must give me confidence to go on and play better this season. If it doesn’t give you confidence, nothing will.”
Quelle: BBC

Provisinal Ranking after the Grand Prix

Pos. Spieler Nat 07/08 08/09 Gesamt
01 Ronnie O´Sullivan ENG 12125 42525
02 Stephen Maguire SCO 25957 6575 32532
03 Ryan Day WAL 194259400 28825
04 Mark Selby ENG 20050 7475 27525
05 Alister Cater ENG 18425 7900 26325
06 John Higgins MBE SCO 14825 11350 26175
07 Shaun Murphy ENG 23700 2275 25975
08 Joe Perry ENG 18250 6175 24425
09 Marco Fu HKG 18075 5575 23650
10 Stephen Hendry MBE SCO 16900 3775 20675
11 Ding Junhui CHN 15869 4525 20394
12 Mark Williams MBE WAL 15100 5116 20216
13 Dave Harold ENG 12244 7650 19894
14 Jamie Cope ENG 12896 5050 17946
15 Mark Allen NIRL 15075 3950 19025
16 Peter Ebdon ENG 14975 3775

Grand Prix 2008 – Final

Best of: 17
Ref.: Erian Willams
John Higgins – Rayan Day 9 – 7, 5 – 2

Framescores:
1. Session
77 – 39, 86 (85) – 47, 24 – 89 (64), 90 (57) – 0, 73 (52) – 4, 4 – 119 (82),
69 (65) – 21
2. Session
79 (62) – 4, 63 – 52 (52), 8 – 69 (69), 65 (49) – 74, 0 – 89 (89), 46 – 61 (39),
81 (50) – 11, 0 -83 (83) , 74 (53) – 36

John Higgins after the match:
“I suppose it’s vanity. A few years ago people talked about the big four of myself, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Stephen Hendry and Mark Williams. Now there are a lot of great new players and people say the big four is Ronnie, Mark Selby, Stephen Maguire and Shaun Murphy.
I still think I’m good enough to be in that group and I hope people will think of me that way now. It’s not nice when you fall away and people don’t expect you to win titles any more. I’m still only playing well in patches but winning one of the big BBC events should give me the confidence to go on and play better. My aim now is to go and win another one.
I couldn’t believe the scoreline when I was 7-2 up because I hadn’t played that well. I was lucky that Ryan had an off day, it was the worst he played all tournament. I knew at that stage he would let his arm go and come back at me.
I had a couple of great chances to go 8-3. I refused a pot on the yellow and put him back in a snooker, then he ended up hitting it and clearing up to win the frame. At that point I felt that I deserved to lose for not having the bottle to take on the yellow.
Then at 8-7 I didn’t get on a red off the black (on 53) and when he fluked a red I thought the balls weren’t going to forgive me. Luckily for me he missed and I got the balls I needed. I was absolutely delighted to win, it’s a great feeling.
I won a tournament after my first son Pierce was born and another for Oliver, so I didn’t want her to feel left out,. Maybe if I don’t win another one for a while we’ll have to get back to the bedroom!”

WSA – Blog:
There’s not much between John Higgins and Ryan Day according to the bookmakers. Higgins is 8/11 odds-on favourite while Day is even money. The shortest price scorelines are 9-7 and 9-8 to Higgins, both at 6-1.
The two most significant previous meetings between the two finalists have both come at the Crucible. Day lost 10-9 to Higgins on his Sheffield debut in 2004, despite becoming the first player to make three centuries on his debut at the famous venue. The Pontycymmer cueman gained revenge last season when he scored a 13-9 victory over Higgins in the last 16.
Higgins will move up from ninth to sixth if he wins, or seventh if he loses.
Journalist Neil Goulding bought John Higgins a packet of Monster Munch as an added victory bonus and presented the gift to the champion at his post-final press conference. However, on noticing that the crisps were Flaming Hot flavour rather than his prefered Roast Beef, Higgins declined and offered the packet to the remaining media. It was quickly snapped up by Phil Yates of the Times.