John Higgins came agonisingly close to becoming the first player to compile a 167 break on the opening day of the inaugural World Masters of Snooker tournament in Saudi Arabia.
Higgins potted all 15 reds and blacks but ran out of position on the yellow in the first frame of his second-round match against Mark Williams.
If the Scot had completed the maximum it would have given him the opportunity to pot the 20-point ‘golden ball’, which sits on the bottom cushion for as long as a maximum break is possible and is worth £395,000 if potted in addition to the 147.
Higgins shrugged off his disappointment to complete a 4-2 win over Williams at almost 2.30am in Riyadh, setting up a quarter-final against Ronnie O’Sullivan on Tuesday.
"It was an incredible feeling, I couldn’t feel my arms or legs," Higgins told WST.
"I gave it a good go, but it was disappointing in the end. I’m delighted to win two matches today though and get through to play Ronnie. That’s always special, and it will be great to play him here in Saudi."
In the other first-round match played on Monday, Ali Carter repelled a fightback from Ding Junhui to triumph 4-3 and reach the last eight.
"It was an unbelievable match to be involved in, great that it was so close and great for me to be the one to get through," said world number eight Carter.
Higgins and Ding, who both entered the tournament as wildcards, began with whitewash wins over Omar Alajlani of Saudi Arabia and Qatar’s Ali Alobaidli respectively.
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