John Higgins v Barry Hawkins live stream | Northern Ireland Open 2024 preview
Higgins and Hawkins go head to head in Belfast (Imaginechina Limited / Alamy Stock Photo)
John Higgins and Barry Hawkins go head to head on Wednesday for the right to play Judd Trump in the last 16 of the Northern Ireland Open.
One of the last 32’s standout ties sees the players ranked 14th and 19th in the world respectively lock horns at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast.
Ironically, it is exactly 18 years to the day since the first meeting between the pair at the 2006 Grand Prix, which Higgins won 3-1.
The Scotsman has prevailed in three of the four most recent encounters (excluding the Championship League), including victories at the 2018 Welsh Open showpiece and 2017 World Championship semi-finals.
Higgins’ trademark tenacity and bouncebackability have been evident since he recently fell out of the top 16 for the first time since 1995.
A run to the British Open final quickly secured his return to snooker’s elite bracket and, following a 4-2 victory over Fan Zhengyi on Monday, has now won 11 of his last 13 matches.
The four-time World champion was runner-up to Mark Allen in this event in 2021, having also reached the semi-finals two years earlier.
Hawkins’ Northern Ireland Open tournament record also includes a run to the final and the last four.
The Hawk was runner-up at the inaugural event in 2016, and was beaten in the last four by eventual champion Trump 12 months ago.
Hawkins, who beat Matthew Stevens 4-2 in the last 64, has reached two quarter-finals this season at the Xi’an Grand Prix and English Open, as he looks to climb back into the world’s top 16.
And the four-time ranking event winner can count himself unfortunate to have ran into the eventual champion in two of his last three tournaments, in Neil Robertson at the English Open, and Xiao Guodong in Wuhan.
A Northern Ireland Open last-16 showdown with reigning champion Trump is the prize on offer to whoever prevails from this tasty clash.
The match gets under way at 2pm BST on Wednesday and will be contested over the best of seven frames at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast.
How to watch John Higgins v Barry Hawkins live stream
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