John Higgins has been changing his outlook on the game over the last couple of years, feeling more like his old rival Mark Williams as his career goes on. The Wizard of Wishaw turns 51 next month but is still going strong, competing among the world's best on the baize. The Scot is into the quarter-finals of the World Championship, where he is scrapping it out with Neil Robertson at the Crucible.
The Australian has taken a 5-3 lead after a stodgy first session on Tuesday afternoon, but there is an awful long way to go in their race to 13 over two more sessions on Wednesday. Higgins has come through two tough contests already in Sheffield, beating Ali Carter 10-7 in round one before edging Ronnie O'Sullivan 13-12 in a thrilling clash which finished on Monday afternoon.
Helping him to pick up these brilliant results in his sixth decade is a new attitude he has adopted recently, trying to relax, enjoy the game more and take the intensity out of it. The four-time world champion is a very different character to his relaxed Class of 92 rival Mark Williams, but he is adopting the Welshman's chilled out approach and it is paying off.
A Mental Shift
'I'm just trying to be chilled,' he said. 'I'll be honest, I think in the last year or two I really do think there's been a mental shift in my own thinking. I think I was maybe holding on in the last few years to the intense way of thinking. But now in the last couple of years, it's as if I've been trying to go all Mark Williams. I don't know. It's just the way it is. The family is down and just enjoy it with them and just enjoy it more.'
Higgins painted a composed figure after coming through a dramatic battle with the Rocket, not bubbling with excitement despite the epic come-from-behind victory having trailed 9-4. 'I just try and not be elated, I'm really just sitting here calm, I'm thinking great win, but it's forgot,' he said in the post-match press conference. 'I need to get home, rest, have food and then just get ready for the next two days.'
Overwhelmed by the Crucible Atmosphere
Higgins admitted he was anything but calm and composed early in the match with the Rocket, admitting that the incredible atmosphere in the Crucible on Saturday night got to him. With the clash between him and Ronnie on one table and Williams facing Barry Hawkins on the other, the walk-ons were special moments in Sheffield. The Wizard was a bit spellbound by the occasion, falling 6-2 behind in the evening session on Saturday.
'I'll be brutally honest, the ovation we got and the whole walking in, it threw me,' said Higgins. 'That's not a slight on Rob [Walker] because he got it that it might not happen again, me, Mark and Ronnie, but I just felt I was like a rabbit with the headlights a little bit. I'm maybe not that character, I think maybe Ronnie could thrive off it and he just settled down right away and I'm thinking: Wow, it just felt everything enclosed in me, it really did. But that's just what this place can do to you, that was incredible, it really was all the way through the match, it really was incredible.'
Higgins and Robertson play their final two sessions on Wednesday morning and evening.
