In the early hours of December 17, 2023, the second semi-final of the Scottish Open was held, in which John Higgins took on Thailand's Norpeng Sangkham, in an extremely intense match.
After the first eight rounds of the matchup, Higgins was at risk of losing the match and needed to win three games in a row to advance to the final.
It is worth mentioning that at this year's Scottish Open, in addition to Higgins and Sancam, there are other favorites such as Trump and Chinese star Ding Junhui.
But Ding Junhui lost 3-4 to Forde in the third round, while Trump lost 2-4 to Zhang Anda in the second round.
In contrast, Higgins performed well in the first three rounds, successfully reaching the semi-finals.
He won 4-0 against Oliver Lines, 4-1 over Nationals and 4-3 over Rich Wharton.
In the fourth round, he will face Lu Haotian, who is in good form.
Previously, Lu Haotian and Higgins had a total of 3 encounters, all of which were unwinnable and were at a clear disadvantage.
After the start of the game, Lu Haotian performed well in the first game, and won easily 93-5 with 89 points and successfully opened the game.
However, in the second game, Higgins struggled to pull one back at 91-24 with a few shots to tie the score to 1-1.
Then in the third game, Higgins scored 68 points and beat Lu Haotian 72-0, overtaking the score to a 2-1 lead.
However, in the fourth game, Lu Haotian scored 91 points again and won 100-18, leveling the score to 2-2, and the two sides returned to the same running line.
In the fifth game, Higgins narrowly won 62-54 with a series of starters, taking a 3-2 lead again and taking match point.
In the sixth game, Lu Haotian launched a stubborn counterattack, but in the end Higgins won the game 76-33, and the overall score was 4-2 to successfully advance, while Lu Haotian missed the quarterfinals.
Next, Higgins won 5-3 against Tom Forde to advance again.
But in the semi-finals, he trailed his opponent 3-5 after the eighth game and had to win three games in a row to advance to the final.
Higgins will face a tough challenge and we look forward to seeing him fight back again and have a chance to qualify for the final.