00:002-0
00:03Chou had the chance to level just now
00:05and played a series of excellent shots
00:08to set up the opportunity
00:09only to then miss the cutback red
00:11into that left corner
00:12and it was relatively straightforward
00:15for Higgins to mop up
00:17to double his lead
00:26of course one of the two ranking titles
00:28that Higgins won last season
00:30was the Tour Championship
00:31and he's got himself inside the top 12
00:33with that tournament in mind
00:34by reaching this final
00:42close
00:44and he has been knocking in the long ones
00:46but here's a chance for Zhao
00:49to get himself involved in this final
01:13one
01:14one
01:14two
01:16one
01:17two
01:18one
01:46So, 8-2-0 down,
01:48but he could easily have made that 1-0,
01:51but for that missed red, he took on,
01:54which felt a big shock, really,
01:57because he'd done some good work.
01:58He's early in the match, and I know one thing,
02:00it won't stop him playing his natural way of playing.
02:05We know he can come from behind.
02:06He's done it against leading players recently,
02:11the likes of Selby and Allen yesterday.
02:16But he'll have to start somewhere,
02:17and he could do with making something of this chance.
02:21He doesn't want to go any further behind against this man.
02:23He won't be relinquishing a lead very easily.
02:3115.
02:32I think with John Higgins,
02:34when Xintong missed that second last ready,
02:37he saw that as a moment.
02:38He's got all the experience.
02:39He knows he's got to make sure he wins that frame there,
02:42and then make it into something.
02:47Because there's always going to be spells
02:48where Xiao Xin Tong pot's tremendously well and scores.
02:5222.
02:53That's going to happen in this match.
02:54Higgins knows that.
02:5823.
03:00I think sometimes when you're playing someone
03:02that's such a good player,
03:04you know that you've got to pick up the pieces sometimes
03:08and the frames that aren't spectacular.
03:1730.
03:2231.
03:2231.
03:4138.
03:43The sign of a class player is that
03:47they play at quite a pace
03:49without appearing in any way to rush.
03:51and Xiao certainly does that.
03:54Just seems to glide around the table.
03:57A little surprised he played it in that way.
03:59I thought he could have stunned it
03:59and finished on the black in the other pocket.
04:03But this will be the shot that tells us
04:04if it was right or wrong.
04:08Now, I don't know.
04:09It's an odd way of playing it, I felt,
04:11to run through that red.
04:15He was a bit thin on the black.
04:17He's got a difficult shot to keep the break going now.
04:31And this really is difficult
04:33over the top of a ball.
04:3847.
04:38That is an absolutely brilliant shot.
04:42They are so difficult.
04:45The queuing is the reason it's so difficult.
04:48Over the top of some reds.
04:5550.
04:5850.
05:1751.
06:18End of break all the same.
06:20It's a good contribution, but he needs to ensure that it goes on to good things, because the balls are
06:27not...
06:29They're not badly placed at all if Higgins got the chance.
06:59I'm just pushing that black into...
07:01It's a little awkward spot, which is clearly to Higgins detriment in the way of a possible winning counter in
07:09this frame.
07:15Yeah, I mean, if you're going to be sort of picky or you're going to be sort of strict with
07:21it all,
07:21you probably should have made sure it's buried on the cushion, the black.
07:24So, for the reasons you explained, you know, he's trying to make it difficult for Higgins, but where the black
07:29is, he could easily get behind that.
07:37I think it's even safer.
07:52Whatever happens today, there won't be much time to rest on laurels or absorb the disappointment.
08:00Whoever wins or loses, Walsh Open starting tomorrow, final home nations event, as James and Tom gets back in.
08:11Xiao will be playing Fan Zheng Yi in his first match.
08:13Higgins, Higgins, Liu Wenwei, both are playing on Tuesday.
08:25The Green ball.
08:34Resounding.
08:36Terrific hot.
08:40Four.
08:40Thread to right middle.
08:41It's a slightly acute angle.
08:43He should get it, but his frame ball.
08:47Five.
08:48Yeah.
08:48He's done well here, this frame.
08:50No huge fireworks, but it's still a frame he needed to get on the board.
08:56So, he seemed unflustered by the fact that he should have won the second frame.
09:00He's not let it bother him.
09:05But, of course, now we've got a frame before the mid-session interval, which...
09:10Line.
09:11Xin Tong won it.
09:11He'd come out of it feeling quite good about things.
09:17So, it'll be a big frame the next one.
09:19It's a long match.
09:20We know that.
09:20And the target's not to get to two or three, it's to get to ten.
09:26Higgins cannot take any kind of advantage, because he's had quite a lot at the session.
09:34But it's a good frame, however, by Xiao Xin Tong.
09:42Sixteen.
09:56Twenty-two.
10:00Twenty-three.
10:10Higgins took on a long red.
10:11Got pretty close, actually.
10:13Right at the start of this frame.
10:16Twenty-nine.
10:17Xiao made fifty-nine.
10:19Lost position, but...
10:22Got back in.
10:24Thirty.
10:40Thirty-five.
10:43Thirty-seven.
10:44Pretty brisk stuff, this.
10:46Under 45 minutes of play.
10:48Already three frames have come and gone.
10:52Sometimes it gets very edgy at the start of a big final like this, but both players are
10:56queuing well, as they've done, of course, throughout this tournament.
11:00That's why they're here in the title match.
11:05Forty-four.
11:08Very casual double, wasn't it, on the green?
11:12Forty-nine.
11:13Yeah, he simply oozes talent.
11:15The world champion makes this very difficult game at times look like.
11:20Fifty-five.
11:22Shelling peas.
11:26And a couple of half-centuries has accounted for frame three, so Xiao Xin Tong won't truly
11:31off and running in Telford as he halves John Higgins' deficit in the Players' Championship
11:37final.
11:41He begins looking at...
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