Quinten Hann once wrote himself into the snooker record books for winning 13 successive matches by a 5-4 margin.
With nerve like that, Hann fancied his chances of upsetting John Higgins in the #350,000 Grand Prix at Bournemouth yesterday, despite blowing a 4-1 advantage. Indeed, so cocksure had Hann been of completing a famous victory that he began showboating for the crowd.
The 20-year-old Australian's antics sufficiently incensed Higgins to rouse himself for a comeback that ended in a deciding frame victory. Higgins said: ''Quinten started to take the mickey by going for doubles that weren't really on and flicking out his cue after certain shots.
''But that's what he gets,'' added Higgins with reference to the final scoreline. ''It wasn't one of my best performances and I struggled hoping things would happen.
''However, Quinten is a good player and in a few seasons can become one of the top ones.''
Higgins now meets Essex left-hander Mark King for a place in the quarter-finals. He is the bookies' favourite for a #60,000 first prize and his first domestic ranking event title for 20 months.
Victory on Sunday night would also enable him to make inroads into Stephen Hendry's lead at the head of the provisional world rankings. ''I daren't look forward after what's happened here this week,'' he said, referring to the number of top players, including Hendry, who have been sent tumbling. ''But I'm not bothered who I play.''
Higgins, beaten 5-3 by Hann in last season's Thailand Open, faced another defeat when the world No.104 built-up a 4-1 and 40-1 lead. Fortunately for Higgins, his opponent missed a straightforward red and the opportunity to celebrate a repeat victory. Hann admitted: ''That was match ball. But I never had any doubts I'd win. I know I'm going to be a top eight player soon.''
Chris Small made it four Scots in the fourth round with a 5-2 win against Welshman Paul Davies. Small dispensed with his usual no frills approach to knock in a century and two other half-centuries during an encouraging display.
The world No.24 from Edinburgh said: ''Even though the match wasn't going out live, it was encouraging to play like that before the cameras. I'm playing with more self belief this season.''
Small's opponent tomorrow will be 20-year-old Alfie Burden, the 5-3 conqueror of Regal Masters champion Nigel Bond. Bond failed to shoulder the responsibility of being the last member of the Team G de Z Capital stable still in contention. He became the fifteenth and final casualty of Ian Doyle's Stirling stable giving road manager John Carroll an unexpected few days off.
Alan McManus, one of only four top 16 survivors, resumes against Jimmy White this evening, while early bird Billy Snaddon breaks off today's action against Matthew Stevens.
The first two places in the quarter-finals were filled last night though both John Parrott and Dominic Dale went to the wire in their matches.
Parrott, the world No.5 recovered from 3-1 down to put out youngster Paul Hunter 5-4 while Dale obtained two snookers on the final brown in frame eight before going on to win the decider against Dave Harold.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article