Higgins hitting form at Crucible
John Higgins began to take charge of his second-round Crucible contest against Rory McLeod before time ran out and the pair were hauled off the table a frame early.
The Scot, favourite for the Betfred.com World Championship this year, dropped the opening two frames to McLeod but ended the session with a 5-2 lead.
There should have been an eighth frame, but as the clocked ticked past quarter to two tournament officials decided there was insufficient time to guarantee it would be completed before the scheduled 2.30pm start of afternoon play.
Higgins is not renowned as a slow player, but 40-year-old Wellingborough player McLeod showed in his opening-round win over Ricky Walden that he can grind out matches. He and Walden failed to complete their first session too, and Walden likened playing McLeod to visiting a dentist.
Higgins attempted to stay out of that row, with the 35-year-old Scot hoping he would be able to dictate the pace against McLeod. However the play was sluggish as they began their three-session battle on Sunday, and Higgins had to carry some responsibility as the opening four frames dragged on for over two hours.
McLeod opened a surprise 2-0 lead, as the form Higgins showed in his opening win over Stephen Lee deserted him. But back came the champion of 1998, 2007 and 2009 to crawl back to 2-2, aided by a break of 73 in the third frame.
They continued to become entrenched in safety duels, and Higgins was just edging them. He had a break of 53 in taking the sixth frame, before adding the 38-minute seventh from 55-0 behind. Despite Higgins having a top break of 25 in the frame, McLeod gave away 35 points in fouls. They resume tonight.
Ding Junhui, on the other table, was in early trouble against Peter Ebdon's conqueror Stuart Bingham.
The Chinese cueman fell 3-0 behind against his English opponent, before pulling back to 3-2 with breaks of 67 and 74.
Bingham pulled away again though, taking two of the next three frames to obtain a 5-3 lead to take into Sunday night's second session.
