In the afternoon session, Bressel quickly took a 6-2 lead and kept the momentum going. With a very good snooker, he extended his lead to 8-2 with breaks of 79 and 64. During the first season, he had already recorded breaks of 96, 61, 104, 79 and 64. Rare errors cost Bressel the eleventh and twelfth frames. Higgins fielded a third consecutive frame before Bressel emerged victorious on the “Century” of 127.

It was Luca Bressel’s second consecutive final in the ranking tournament. Last week, he lost 10-5 against Chinese Zhao Shintong (WS-9, photo) at the UK Championships in York.

Higgins won the Scottish Open in 1995 and 1996, and was a finalist in 1998 and 2016. In all, “The Wizard of Wishaw” has 31 ranking tournament successes to its name. Only O’Sullivan (37) and Stephen Hendry (36) did better. “Bressel was just great,” Higgins admitted. “I felt great, but it took me much longer to beat Luca today. Maybe some of the young guys in the house are now dreaming of being the new Bressel because he is one of the best players in the world. Last week he was already second and next week he has a good chance of winning as well. It’s a shame he can’t go to the Masters (after the UK Championship the first 16 have qualified). This It is clear that some changes are needed in the qualifying rules for this tournament.”