Higgins reaches 1,000 career centuries in defeat at English Open

John Higgins became only the second snooker player to reach 1,000 career centuries

John Higgins became only the second snooker player to reach 1,000 career centuries despite crashing out of the English Open in Brentwood.

The 49-year-old Scot achieved the milestone with breaks of 108 and 105 in the third and fifth frames of his quarter-final clash against Mark Allen.

But it was not enough to seal a win that would have boosted his hopes of staying in the top 16 as Allen – who hit a century of his own in the opening frame – held firm in a gruelling decider to edge a 4-3 win.

Ronnie O’Sullivan is the only other player to have reached the four-figure century milestone, having done so in the final frame of his 2019 Players Championship final win over Neil Robertson.

Earlier, Judd Trump set up a quarter-final clash with China’s Wu Yize after hitting back from behind to claim a 4-2 win over Fan Zhengyi.

The world No 1 nudged one closer to joining O’Sullivan and Higgins in the thousand-century club as he reeled off a break of 101 in the course of winning three frames in a row to extend his winning run.

Mark Selby held his nerve to carve out a 4-3 win over Si Jiahui and book a last-eight meeting with India’s Ishpreet Singh Chadha, who also overcame a final frame decider against China’s He Guoqiang.

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