John Higgins hits 1,000th century in English Open defeat to Mark Allen

John Higgins became the second player to hit 1,000 centuries on his way to a narrow 4-3 last-16 defeat to Mark Allen in the English Open.

Ronnie O’Sullivan reached the landmark in 2019, with Higgins back on 745 three-figure breaks at the time.

But scores of 108 and 109 saw the 49-year-old draw level at 3-3 before Allen took a long and tense final frame in Brentwood.

Four-time world champion Higgins has hit 13 maximum 147 breaks in his career, again only second to O’Sullivan. His first century came in the 1992-93 season, with his most prolific campaign coming in 2021-22 when he hit 58 tons., external

Reigning English champion Judd Trump moved to 998 centuries during his 4-2 win over Fan Zhengyi. Trump will now play another Chinese player Wu Yize in the quarter-finals.

“It’s a good achievement. I’ve played this game for so long to get to that milestone. You have to be proud of that,” said Higgins.

“I’m really proud. To be honest, I wanted to get there before Judd. I thought that I have a 14 year head start on him.

“It is good to be second to Ronnie O’Sullivan, the best ever. Judd will obviously go on and probably eclipse Ronnie’s century record.”

Allen faces Chris Wakelin or Pang Junxu and Mark Selby will play India’s Ishpreet Singh Chadha, the first Indian to reach the quarter-finals of a ranking event in 11 years.

He only joined the tour at the start of last season after moving to snooker from being a professional gamer playing Counterstrike Global Offensive., external

Neil Robertson will play either Barry Hawkins or Kyren Wilson in the final quarter-final.