John Higgins comes close to 'golden ball' glory in Saudi Arabia

John Higgins came agonisingly close to becoming the first player to compile a 167 break on the opening day of the inaugural World Masters of Snooker tournament in Saudi Arabia.

Higgins potted all 15 reds and blacks but ran out of position on the yellow in the first frame of his second-round match against Mark Williams.

If the Scot had completed the maximum it would have given him the opportunity to pot the 20-point ‘golden ball’, which sits on the bottom cushion for as long as a maximum break is possible and is worth £395,000 if potted in addition to the 147.

Higgins and Williams were locked together at 1-1 long after midnight in Riyadh as they battled to complete the quarter-final line-up and set up a clash with Ronnie O’Sullivan on Tuesday.

In the other first-round match played on Monday, Ali Carter repelled a fightback from Ding Junhui to triumph 4-3 and reach the last eight.

Higgins and Ding, who both entered the tournament as wildcards, began with whitewash wins over Omar Alajlani of Saudi Arabia and Qatar’s Ali Alobaidli respectively.