{"id":552409,"date":"2026-04-26T23:37:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T23:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/552409\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T23:37:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T23:37:12","slug":"world-snooker-championship-ronnie-osullivan-thumps-table-as-john-higgins-cuts-gap-to-two-frames-in-second-round-clash-snooker-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/552409\/","title":{"rendered":"World Snooker Championship: Ronnie O’Sullivan thumps table as John Higgins cuts gap to two frames in second round clash | Snooker News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ronnie O’Sullivan leads John Higgins 9-7 in World Snooker Championship second round clash; ‘Class of \u201892’ rematch is for place in quarter-finals and concludes on Monday; O’Sullivan had led 6-2 before Higgins fightback in Sunday’s second session <\/p>\n

Last Updated: 26\/04\/26 10:59pm<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

\n John Higgins fought back in his second-round clash with Ronnie O’Sullivan, cutting his lead to two frames at 9-7 <\/p>\n

Ronnie O’Sullivan thumped the table in frustration as John Higgins fought back in the second session of their second round match at the World Snooker Championship on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

O’Sullivan twice led by five frames and looked to be cruising towards the quarter-finals, only for Higgins to reel in the seven-time champion and end the evening just two adrift, down 9-7 in the best-of-25-frames clash.<\/p>\n

A pivotal final frame of the session proved too much for O’Sullivan, who gave the cushion a painful rap with his knuckles after missing an early red, before Higgins edged over the line to finish much the happier of the two players.<\/p>\n

\"Ronnie <\/p>\n

Ronnie O’Sullivan is taking on John Higgins in a ‘Class of \u201892’ rematch <\/p>\n

Higgins never got going in the early stages, but clawed out frame 14 despite fluffing an attempted escape from a snooker, and never looked back. He reeled in a 55-point deficit in the next, then held his nerve in an edgy last frame of the night in which both players went in-off at crucial moments.<\/p>\n

Earlier, defending champion Zhao Xintong moved closer to cracking the so-called ‘Crucible Curse’ by booking his place in the quarter-finals with a 13-9 win over compatriot Ding Junhui.<\/p>\n

Zhao shrugged off some evident nerves to build on his 9-7 overnight advantage despite losing an error-strewn, 46-minute opener that saw Ding temporarily reduce the arrears to a single frame.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old – looking to become the first first-time winner to retain his title at the Crucible – capitalised on a series of misses by his opponent to pull away, a break of 108 in the penultimate frame helping seal a last eight clash with Shaun Murphy.<\/p>\n

\"World <\/p>\n

World No 1 Judd Trump moved a step closer to the quarter-finals by opening up a two-frame lead over Hossein Vafaei <\/p>\n

World No 1 Judd Trump inched closer to booking his place in the quarter-finals after establishing a 9-7 overnight lead in a pulsating contest against Iran’s Hossein Vafaei.<\/p>\n

Resuming at 4-4, Trump struggled to get into his stride as his inspired opponent edged 7-6 in front, but Trump responded brilliantly, with a century break followed by further frame-clinching efforts of 74 and 94 seeing him end their second session with a precious advantage.<\/p>\n

Neil Robertson took advantage of a controversial moment in the 14th frame of his clash with Chris Wakelin to move four clear at 10-6 ahead of Monday’s conclusion to their second round encounter.<\/p>\n

Wakelin was well in the ascendency when he potted a long red, but a foul was called by referee Peggy Li who noticed him feather the yellow ball in the process.<\/p>\n

Wakelin clearly did not agree with the referee’s call but the decision stood after Li called for a replay, and Robertson capitalised to take the frame with a 65 break, before further breaks of 65 and 101 took him to the brink of his first last eight appearance since 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ronnie O’Sullivan leads John Higgins 9-7 in World Snooker Championship second round clash; ‘Class of \u201892’ rematch is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[172374,8627,63456,1853,21282,23502,172382,172377,15999,59,8541,5149,31106,42180,172376,172380,121748,172378,50,172381,1647,3669,172379,57970,221,25452,60054,65157,172373,5752,172375,2946,65155,101,125980,172372,20033,56014,10509,92559,56,54,55,41467,21281,102831],"class_list":{"0":"post-552409","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-allister-carter","9":"tag-bahrain","10":"tag-black","11":"tag-blue","12":"tag-brown","13":"tag-chinese","14":"tag-cue","15":"tag-ding-junhui","16":"tag-final","17":"tag-gb","18":"tag-grand-prix","19":"tag-green","20":"tag-joe-perry","21":"tag-john-higgins","22":"tag-marco-fu","23":"tag-mark-king","24":"tag-mark-selby","25":"tag-mark-williams","26":"tag-news","27":"tag-nigel-bond","28":"tag-northern-ireland","29":"tag-open","30":"tag-peter-ebdon","31":"tag-pink","32":"tag-premier-league","33":"tag-rankings","34":"tag-red","35":"tag-ronnie-osullivan","36":"tag-ryan-day","37":"tag-shanghai","38":"tag-shaun-murphy","39":"tag-sky-sports","40":"tag-snooker","41":"tag-sports","42":"tag-stephen-hendry","43":"tag-stephen-maguire","44":"tag-steve-davis","45":"tag-table","46":"tag-the-masters","47":"tag-trophy","48":"tag-uk","49":"tag-united-kingdom","50":"tag-unitedkingdom","51":"tag-welsh","52":"tag-world-championship","53":"tag-yellow"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}