John Higgins admitted he felt “total relief” after surviving a major Crucible scare to reach his fourth World Championship final against a battling Mark Allen.
Higgins had been 13-3 ahead on Friday, needing just four more frames for victory, but Allen fought back to 15-12. The Northern Irishman could not complete the recovery though, with Higgins going through 17-13.
“I feel total relief. I was just thinking I could throw this all away,” said Higgins, the 1998 and 2007 champion. “All sorts of negative thoughts crept in, but it’s only at The Crucible that you do that.
“All credit to Mark. He’s great for the game – he’s like a street-fighter. He gets the crowd behind him as well.
I told him afterwards he would come back and win it one day.”
Allen’s fightback was stirring and had the crowd wondering whether he could pull off the most improbable of victories, greater even than Ken Doherty’s recovery to win from 15-9 down to Paul Hunter in the 2003 semi-finals.
But 33-year-old Higgins, who won the previous two rounds with last-frame deciders, eventually stumbled over the finishing line.
Allen said: “I’m pleased with the way I fought back and I still fancied the job overnight when I was 15-9 down.
“It was a weird match. I was always way behind and although I came back into it I gave myself far too much to do after the first two sessions.
“I knew if I could play the way I had been playing in this tournament I had a chance to get back into it. But John is more experienced and he played excellently.
“Overall I had a couple of good wins and I went up the rankings a few places.”
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