John Higgins ’embarrassed’ by performance before epic Tour Championship comeback downs Zhao Xintong

John Higgins displayed his immense battling qualities once again as he bounced back from 4-8 down to beat Zhao Xintong 10-9 in the quarter-finals of the Tour Championship on Monday night.

The four-time world champion was a long way from his best over the first 12 frames and it looked set to be a comfortable win for the super-talented Chinese star.

However, as the Cyclone faded away, the Wizard got stronger and it was the Scot who got over the line after a tense deciding frame.

Higgins, who was missing incredibly straight forward balls for a man of his standard before his epic comeback, felt embarrassed by his performance and gave himself little hope of winning at 4-8 behind.

His legendary scrapping was on full display, though, and he booked his place in the semi-final.

‘I can’t believe I’ve won that. I was embarrassed with myself at 8-4,’ Higgins told ITV4.

‘I was thinking that he was playing like a world class player, which he is, and I was playing like a club player.

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‘I didn’t really fancy making the comeback at all, really. But then he started to miss a couple and I started to play a bit better, but I was still all over the place, I felt.

‘I’ve dragged him down to my level, without a shadow of a doubt and that’s why I’ve won the game.’

There was speculation on commentary about a problem with Higgins’ tip, as the pundits looked for a reason for his below-par display in the first half of the match, Higgins made no mention of it after the game, though.

‘I was all over the place all day,’ he