John Higgins Passes Milestone in Narrow English Open Loss

John Higgins attained a historic milestone by becoming the second player ever to hit 1,000 centuries, despite suffering a narrow 4-3 defeat to Mark Allen in the last-16 round of the English Open, BBC reported. Previously, Ronnie O'Sullivan had accomplished this feat in 2019, with Higgins at 745 centuries at that time.

During the match, Higgins managed scores of 108 and 109 to level at 3-3. However, Allen ultimately won the tense final frame in Brentwood. Higgins, a four-time world champion, has achieved 13 maximum 147 breaks in his career, second only to O'Sullivan. Higgins's first century occurred during the 1992-93 season, and his most productive period was in the 2021-22 season with 58 centuries.

Reigning English Champion Judd Trump edged closer to his milestone, reaching 998 centuries after a 4-2 victory over Fan Zhengyi. He will face another Chinese player, Wu Yize, in the quarter-finals. Mark Allen's next challenge will be against either Chris Wakelin or Pang Junxu, while Mark Selby is set to play India's Ishpreet Singh Chadha. Notably, Chadha is the first Indian in 11 years to reach the quarter-finals of a ranking event after joining the tour last season, having transitioned from being a professional gamer in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

In another development, Neil Robertson is scheduled to face either Barry Hawkins or Kyren Wilson in the final quarter-final.

Earlier, SSP reported that Dak Prescott became the NFL’s highest-paid player with a new contract extension.