John Higgins and Ding Junhui Crash Out of the German Masters

It was a disappointing night for the two of the sport’s biggest stars who could have sworn they played their best but were beaten nevertheless. John Higgins and Ding Junhui can now bid the German Masters farewell after falling by the sword.

Robbie Williams delivered the first shocker after edging past Higgins by a 5-4 scoreline. It was the eventual winner who started on the front foot, though, racing to a 2-0 lead after two frames played.

Although the scorecard read 2-0 after the first two frames, it wasn’t exactly hot knife through butter for Williams as he had to hold his nerves to come out tops in the tightly contested frames.

Higgins did come back for him, gathering momentum with an impressive break of 134 in the third frame. It was surely with that energy that the 44-year-old won two more frames on the trot, thanks to breaks of 88 and 138.

Williams regained his form when returning to the table, posting a 4-3 scorecard after seven frames and moving within one frame of the winner. With a break of 74, the
Wizard of Wishaw levelled matters, taking the game into a deciding frame. It was expected to be an easy win for the world number 6 who was taking an opponent 53 places below him in the world rankings.

However, the snooker angels looked like they had Williams on the night as the English man marched onto victory like he wasn’t playing a man who already had 30 ranking titles under his belt.

Ding Junhui was another casualty in the second round of the German Masters, humbly succumbing to the marching orders of Scott Donaldson. It was another 5-4 scoreline dotting the headlines, and to fans of Junhui, it was for the wrong reasons.

It was an enthralling game that saw Donaldson turn the game on its head from a losing position. Junhui was 4-2 up and looked very likely to pick up the only available ticket to the next round of the tournament. However, with three frames on the bounce, Donaldson snatched that one-way pass and owned it.

Written by: Roland Arum