Neil Robertson secures Champion of Champions semi-finals spot
Robertson was the Group Four winner on Thursday (Credit: Matchroom Multi-Sport)
Neil Robertson set up a semi-final clash with Mark Selby at the Champion of Champions, after beating John Higgins 6-4 on Thursday.
The Thunder prevailed as the Group Four winner at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester, booking his place in the last four of the popular invitational event for the seventh time.
Robertson had also enjoyed a commanding 4-1 victory over debutant Tom Ford earlier in the day, hitting a top break of 101 along the way.
The two-time champion then recorded his seventh win over Higgins in eight meetings, excluding the Championship League, to set up a semi-final showdown with Selby.
“This event always seems to bring the best out of me, so I’m delighted to be back in another semi-final and fighting for the title again,” Robertson told ITV.
“I’m looking forward to facing Mark [Selby]. We get on great off the table, but once we shake hands on Saturday, it’s game on.”
Both players made a clinical start to this mouth-watering clash, punishing their opponent’s mistakes, with Higgins’ 91 cancelling out Robertson’s earlier 83.
The Thunder regained his advantage with a superb 127 total clearance, though an 81 clearance from 43-0 down in the following frame drew the Wizard level again at the interval.
Robertson, who lifted this trophy in 2015 and 2019, went back in front with a wonderful break of 115, while a run of 64 gave him a two-frame buffer for the first time at 4-2.
Back came Higgins with contributions of 86 and 79 as he won two of the next three frames to reduce the deficit to 5-4.
The 2016 champion, who was runner-up to Wu Yize at the International Championship final in Nanjing on Sunday, opened frame 10 with a run of 53 on the way to a 61-0 advantage.
However, a wonderful opening red paved the way for Robertson to produce a stunning 63 counter clearance and pinch frame and match on the black.
“It’s tough on John because he only just got back from China,” the Australian added. “I got back on Friday, so I had a couple more days to recover.
“I thought he looked really good, but there were a couple of tired misses in there from him as well.
“We both made a couple of unforced errors, but apart from that, I thought there was a lot of really good stuff out there.”
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Champion of Champions 2025 Results
Thursday November 13
Group Four
Semi-Finals
Neil Robertson 4-1 Tom Ford
John Higgins 4-3 Xiao Guodong
Final
Neil Robertson 6-4 John Higgins