Higgins held to a draw but still moves top of the league - 24/09/2009

John Higgins 3-3 Marco Fu (best of 6)
Higgins' scores first
69-8 (Higgins 69), 24-65 (Fu 44), 60-52 (Higgins 32), 39-71 (Higgins 38, Fu 41), 90-16 (Higgins 90), 46-66 (Higgins 46, Fu 40)

JOHN Higgins moved to the top of the 2009 PartyCasino.com Premier League Snooker table.

Current World Champion Higgins started his campaign last week with a victory over Shaun Murphy and was hoping to be successful again - this time against Marco Fu.

However, he was denied the victory as Fu claimed two of the last three frames after Higgins had moved into a 2-1 lead.

"It was a strange sort of match," said Fu. "We both didn't play well and both struggled and only played well in spells. But you wouldn't expect me to draw with a player like John.

"He's the World Champion and full of confidence at the moment so I'm very happy with a point."

Higgins added: "Sometime you get matches like that and a point is a point. It's very hard to win a match in this format with only six frames."

Fu, who was making his first appearance in this year's competition, had the first opportunity but a missed black off the spot proved crucial as Higgins capitalised with a break of 69 for a 1-0 lead.

Two fouls from Fu at the start of the second was a bad way to begin the next frame but he later recovered well with a score of 44 helping him to equal the scores.

Higgins got a stroke of luck at the beginning of the third by potting a fluked red and that led to him quickly moving 32 ahead. When Fu later went in-off on a safety, that gave Higgins another advantage and he extended his lead to 41 points.

However, he let his opponent in again and Fu was well placed to take the lead until he missed the brown with only four balls left on the table. That mistake was punished as Higgins stole the third frame to retake the lead at 2-1.

The critical moment in the fourth frame came when Higgins, after scoring 39, overhit an attempted pot on the blue and lost position and therefore had to play safe. That cost him a great deal as Fu made scores of 41 and then 30 to pull the score back to 2-2.

Higgins ensured he would claim at least a point from the match with a break of 90 in the fifth, although he lost position just as the century break bonus loomed on the horizon.

It should have ended 3-3 as Higgins' break faultered at 32 but Fu missed a routine-looking black off the spot. But there was another twist as Higgins pocketed a black but then watched in horror as the cue ball disappeared into the centre pocket.

A later excellent double on the yellow from Fu saw him close in on a 3-3 draw and moments later that should have been the case but Fu missed a match-saving pink ball. But Higgins still required one snooker. He could not get it and Fu claimed a hard-fought point by sinking a long pot on the pink.