John Higgins wins World Open to end four-year wait for ranking title

Victory for Scotland's Higgins at the Yushan Sports Centre in China represents his first ranking crown for four years - the longest such wait of his career - and the £175,000 top prize he earns pushes him back up into the top eight of the World Snooker Tour rankings.

Coming into the final there was a gulf of experience between the two contestants with O'Connor - 20 years younger than his opponent - aiming for his first ranking trophy, but on recent form and history, many expected a close encounter.

Higgins took the opening frame of the title decider on the final black, despite O'Connor having earlier made a break of 63. Runs of 82 and 62 then helped Higgins to a 3-0 lead before Englishman O’Connor got on the board with frame four.

After the mid-session interval, O’Connor was gaining momentum with an effort of 61, but it wasn’t enough as Higgins stepped in with a counter clearance of 63 to pinch the frame on the last ball and go 4-1 up.

Breaks of 68 and 70 in the next two frames assisted Higgins to a dominant 6-1 advantage, although O’Connor did take a low-scoring final frame of the first session to give himself some hope.

A few hours later on resumption, Higgins (frame nine, 68 break) moved five clear again although O'Connor pieced together two consecutive frames for the first time in the match along with contributions of 71 and 70 to make it 7-4.

'The Wizard of Wishaw' responded by taking frames either side of the final mid-session interval - breaks of 57 in frame 12 and a 94 in frame 13 - to move 9-4 ahead and one away from the win.

Despite the deficit, O'Connor wasn't ready to submit, prolonging the tie by taking the next two frames - including a gutsy 67 break in frame 15 from behind to keep alive.

However, Higgins extinguished any hopes of a huge comeback by winning the title in frame 16, finishing in style with an effort of exactly 100.

Glory in the Far East makes Higgins the second-oldest winner of a ranking event title in professional snooker history, only behind the late Ray Reardon who won the 1982 Professional Players Tournament aged 50.

Higgins - who turns 50 in May - was already the oldest ranking event finalist since a 53-year-old Rex Williams reached the 1986 Grand Prix final.

A new title to his career CV, this World Open success will be particularly sweet for Higgins having lost his five previous ranking event finals.

That unwanted streak included him losing the 2021 Northern Ireland and English Open finals 9-8, having been 8-6 up in both, and famously the 2022 Tour Championship final where he suffered a 10-9 defeat after being 9-4 up on Neil Robertson.

It has been a feature of Higgins’ game in recent years, losing matches when in front. At the Masters earlier this year, he was 5-1 up on Robertson in the opening match of the tournament, but went out, 6-5.

However - albeit a small scare - there was no such turnaround in today’s final, as Higgins moves up to third on the one-year ranking list, meaning he qualifies for both the Players and Tour Championship events in the coming weeks. It is his first ranking title in China since November 2015 at the International Championship.

In fact, Higgins had come back from the brink of defeat several times during this competition. In the opening round played in Sheffield just before Christmas, Higgins only narrowly squeezed past Wang Yuchen 5-4 to qualify for the main venue - compiling a 76 break in the deciding frame having come to the table 48 points down.

In China, Higgins twice recovered from two down with three to play; in the last 16 he turned around a 4-2 deficit to oust Zhou Yuelong 5-4, and in the semi-finals he dramatically ended the fairytale run of world number 89 Zak Surety by winning the final three frames for a 6-5 victory.

Next up for Higgins and the World Snooker Tour is the 2025 World Grand Prix in Hong Kong which starts on Tuesday.

For all the results from the 2025 World Open, please visit our tournament information centre here.