Scottish Open snooker 2020 - John Higgins comes back from the dead to reach second round

Updated 08/12/2020 at 17:17 GMT

John Higgins looked to be heading for an early exit in the Scottish Open as he trailed 85th seed Soheil Vahedi 3-1 in a best of seven frame match, but the veteran four-time world champion saved his best snooker for the second half of the match as he recovered to seal a 4-3 success.

John Higgins

Image credit: Eurosport

Four-time world champion John Higgins stormed back from 3-1 down to beat Soheil Vahedi and book a spot in the second round of the Scottish Open.

Both players made mistakes in the opening two frames, before Higgins missed a simple red to allow Vahedi in to steal the third. Further errors from Higgins were punished by Vahedi in the fourth frame, as a break of 44 saw him sneak it and take a 3-1 lead.

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Higgins edged back into the contest with a nervy fifth frame win, with both players having several chances to take the frame and squandering them, before Vahedi went for the double off the cushion to put him on the cusp of victory in the sixth, but the miss allowed Higgins to brilliantly put together his highest break of the match - 65 - to take it to a decider.

Then, needing to dig deep, Higgins took advantage of Vahedi's missed black and completed a remarkable comeback victory in style in just under two hours, saving his best snooker for the final two frames.