Snooker news - John Higgins beats Graeme Dott in Players Championship first round

Higgins, who is looking to win his first major ranking title since the 2018 Welsh Open, got off to a nervous start and squeaked to a 56-42 victory in the opening frame, before Dott emphatically pegged him back 86-28 with a half-century break in the second.

The pair continued to trade frames and were locked at 2-2 by the time Higgins took a grip of the match in the fifth, going on to record breaks of 84 and 60 to pull into a 5-2 lead.

Dott hardly got on the table in the final frame as Higgins romped to a convincing win to wrap up the match 6-2 and progress to the quarter-final where he will face Judd Trump.

The winner of that quarter-final will play the winner of Stephen Maguire, who beat Ding Junhui in the first round, or Mark Selby, who saw off Mark Williams.

Also in the first round, Joe Perry beat Neil Robertson 6-4 to book his quarter-final slot against Yan Bingtao who beat Kyren Wilson 6-3.

Perry won through despite Robertson notching three century breaks in a high-quality encounter that went into 10 frames.

In the evening session, Trump put together runs of 130, 64, 93, 75 and 76 to dispatch Shoot Out champion Micheal Holt 6-3.

World champion Trump took a 3-1 advantage to the interval on the back of breaks of 13 and 64, but despite runs of 128 and 56, Holt was unable to put any pressure on the 30-year-old, who will face Higgins in the next round.

The final will take place at Southport's Waterfront on Sunday 1 March.