Congratulations to Scotland’s John Higgins who following Ronnie O’Sullivan’s surprise defeat to Tian Pengfei earlier on today will reclaim top spot in the rankings for what will be a fourth season in total…
Yes although we still have the World Championship to follow this tournament, by opening up what at the time of writing is a lead of 11,185 points, John Higgins now cannot be caught by current number one Ronnie O’Sullivan no matter what happens this season.
It is a fine achievement for John to reclaim that top spot for a third spell and given his victories over Ronnie at Newport, Telford and Glasgow, not to mention six consecutive ranking event semi-finals, it is hard to argue that it is not deserved.
His lead on the one-year list is not quite as big but with Ronnie now out this week John has a good opportunity to put some points between the pair. Ding Junhui too is right up there in the mix and will start 2010/11 very well placed indeed…