Lisowski beats ‘god’ Higgins to set up Welsh Open final with Hawkins

Jack Lisowski pulled off a stunning comeback to beat five-time champion John Higgins and reach the Welsh Open final for the first time.

The 34-year-old Lisowski came from 3-1 behind to beat the Scot 6-5 in Llandudno to set up a meeting with fellow English left-hander Barry Hawkins in Sunday’s final (13:00 GMT).

He made breaks of 95, 79, 138, 58 and a closing 78 to deny 50-year-old Higgins a shot at the Ray Reardon Trophy.

“I knew I was playing well. I turned the game around after the interval and I was just thinking ‘keep it going’,” Lisowski told BBC Sport.

“Sometimes when the pressure’s like that, it gets a little bit easier because you go into auto-pilot.

“The crowd was amazing. I felt at 4-3 up, ‘I’m playing really good’, but you’re playing John Higgins. It’s like you’re playing a god.

Four-time world champion Higgins started the semi-final encounter strongly and led at the interval, helped by a 73 break in frame three.

But Lisowski was rampant immediately after the interval and won three successive frames – with Higgins failing to score a single point – to take a 4-3 lead.

The first of those saw Lisowksi miss the black for a century, but the crowd on the north Wales coast were soon treated to a sublime ton from the man who beat Judd Trump in the Northern Ireland Open final in October for his first ranking title.

Higgins responded with an 82 break to halt Lisowski’s surge and level the contest, but the match got away from the ‘Wizard of Wishaw’.

Earlier, Hawkins resisted a fightback as he clinched a 6-4 victory over Wu Yize to reach the Welsh Open final for the second time in his career.

‘The Hawk’ started strongly, winning four of the first five frames, with 72 and 66 breaks among his highlights.

But China’s Wu, 22, responded in stunning fashion to level the match at 4-4 by reeling off three consecutive frames thanks to a pair of half-centuries and a 122 break.

“I’m over the moon, I’m pleased with that. He threw everything at me at the end there,” Hawkins told BBC Sport.

“4-1 up, I miscued a red with the rest and then I didn’t see a ball. He just went into one.

Barry Hawkins 6-4 Wu Yize