John Higgins admits UK Championship struggles have got into his head

John Higgins admits that a poor run of results at the UK Championship leaves him expecting the worst when games go close in York.

The Wizard of Wishaw is a three-time UK champion, so it seems absurd to suggest he has a poor record in the event, but recent years have been underwhelming for him at the Barbican.

The last of his three triumphs came in 2010 and since then he has not been beyond the quarter-finals of the UK Championship and hasn’t been to the last eight since 2019.

He gets his latest campaign underway on Saturday evening against Ben Woollaston and admits he struggles to get excited to go to a venue where he has struggled for wins.

‘I wouldn’t go as strong as to say dreading it, but it’s a tournament that doesn’t really get me excited, because I’ve had so many poor performances at the Barbican,’ said Higgins. ‘It doesn’t seem to be a good venue for myself.’

The 50-year-old feels like he has lost a lot of tight matches at the UK Championship and despite being known as having one of the great temperaments in snooker, he feels like a defeat is coming if he goes to a deciding frame.

‘It’s maybe a little bit of everything, a little bit of feeling, a little bit of where you stay sometimes,’ he said of his York troubles.

‘I just seem to have lost on a lot of deciders in the last little while and it’s as if that’s always going to happen. You get to five-each and I’ve got a chance and then I’m thinking bad thoughts, thinking “here we go again” and then it happens again.

‘It just seems to be quite a poor event for myself.’

Higgins was beaten by Judd Trump in a deciding frame last year, but that was actually his first loss in a York decider since 2021.

Five of the Wizard’s last 10 defeats at the UK Championship have come in deciding frames.

Higgins arrives at York this year after a good few months on the table, which see him ranked number six in the world at 50 years old.

He won the World Open and Tour Championship at the back end of last season and, while he hasn’t lifted silverware yet this campaign, he reached the International Championship final and British Open semis.

Still highly motivated to add to his tally of 33 ranking titles, the Wizard is installing a home gym to keep his fitness levels up in his sixth decade.

‘It has got me down a little bit because I’ve put a lot of my weight back on that I’d lost,’ he said. ‘So I’ve got a gym just getting built at the house to just give me a little bit more motivation to try and stay a little bit fitter again.

‘Hopefully that can help you with your mental attitude to the game as well. So I’ll try and get a little bit fitter again and hopefully that can give you a bit of a boost as well.’

Higgins takes on Woollaston in the last 32 on Saturday at 7pm, boasting a healthy 6-1 lead over the Englishman in their head-to-head in all competitions.

Woollaston hasn’t beaten the Wizard for over 10 years, but is coming off two good wins in qualifying over Liu Hongyu and Joe O’Connor.