Snooker results: John Higgins beats Zak Surety 6-5 to reach World Open final

The lowly-ranked Surety has enjoyed a week to remember, easily the best performance of his career to date, but he was devastated at the conclusion of an absorbing tussle which he at one stage led 5-3.

In fact, Surety made all of the early running, pinching frame four on the black with a run of 65 to move 3-1 ahead, only for Higgins to finally click into gear and draw level with breaks of 113 and 94.

Surety looked to have taken control of proceedings again when dominating frames seven and eight to move 5-3 in front and put himself on the verge of a famous victory.

And he was almost there when building a 54-point lead in the ninth frame.

However, Higgins had other ideas, a vintage clearance of 72 keeping his hopes alive.

The veteran Scot took the match the distance by drawing level, but Surety was again in first with 41 in the decider before missing a simple red with the table at his mercy.

Higgins, who has himself suffered his fair share of close defeats in big matches of late, summoned one last effort, holding his nerve to compile a match-winning counter of 72.

"It feels amazing to win, I'm buzzing," Higgins told World Snooker Tour. "Zak will be pig sick because he totally outplayed me, he just missed a couple of crucial balls at the end.

"He was holding himself together brilliantly at 5-3, every credit to him in his first semi. It's a tough game when you're under pressure.

"It will be hard for him to take but hopefully he'll reflect on reaching the semi-finals and the ranking points. He is such an improved player, I think he'll keep moving up.

"He had some nice words for me at the end and that shows the mark of the man. You want good things to happen to people like that, when they take defeats with good grace.

"At 5-3 I was trying to stay positive. There was pressure at the end and I still had to go in and pot the balls. I have been on the receiving end of so many deciders in the last few years.

"Maybe beating Zhou Yuelong 5-4 this week helped me because I was able to keep myself under control today."

Higgins will face Joe O'Connor in the final after he proved too strong for Ali Carter, running out a convincing 6-3 winner.

O'Connor has numbered the likes of Judd Trump and Shaun Murphy among his victims this week, and he reeled off four more fifty-plus breaks to book his place in the final.