[attach id=542769 size="medium"]John Higgins... China title.[/attach]
Snooker: John Higgins (picture) beat Stuart Bingham 10-7 in the final of the new Evergrande China Championship yesterday to bank £200,000, snooker’s biggest ever first prize for a tournament outside the UK. A stunning finish of three centuries in the last three frames gave Higgins his biggest pay-day since capturing his fourth world title in 2011. The world number six from Wishaw won four matches in Guangzhou, culminating in a superb display in a high quality final against Bingham which featured five centuries and nine more breaks over 50 in the 17 frames.“At 7-7 I was just hanging in there, Stuart was playing the better stuff and I was just scrapping away,” said Higgins. “I knew my form needed to come. It’s a dream come true to finish a match off like that with three centuries, especially for such a big prize and a big tournament.”
Cricket: England’s leading test wicket-taker James Anderson will join up with the squad for the five-match series in India after making “encouraging progress” from a shoulder injury, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said. Anderson, who has not featured for the side since August, had been cleared to travel after passing a late fitness test on Friday and it was hoped the 34-year-old seamer would play a “significant part” in the test series, the statement added. “It’s a credit to the hunger he has shown to get back,” captain Alastair Cook said.
Basketball, NBA: Stephen Curry’s 157-game three-pointer streak came to an end as the Golden State Warriors were beaten 117-97 by the Los Angeles Lakers. Curry missed all 10 of his three-point attempts as the Warriors lost for the second time this season. Kevin Durant, the night after dominating against his former club Oklahoma City Thunder, managed 27 points but Curry could only muster 13 – his lowest return in 25 regular-season games.
Rugby League: The line-up for the 2017 World Cup was completed on Friday night with the qualification of Italy, who defeated Russia 76-0 in Leigh to take the 14th and final spot. Former Hull KR stand-off Terry Campese scored 24 points in a man-of-the-match performance as the largely Australia-based Azzurri qualified for their second successive World Cup and will take their place in pool D alongside Fiji and USA. Russia, made up entirely of players from the domestic competition, were down to just 16 fit players at the end of their European qualifying campaign and were outclassed from the start.
Horse Racing: German-born jockey Freddy Tylicki has been told by doctors that he was paralysed from the waist down after sustaining spinal injuries in a fall at Kempton Park in England, the Injured Jockeys Fund (IJF) said. Tylicki, who was one of a quartet of jockeys involved in the four-horse pile-up on Monday, was taken to the major trauma unit at St George’s Hospital in south London after he was air-lifted from the course by helicopter. Champion jockey Jim Crowley suffered a broken nose in the pile-up while the other two riders managed to walk away unhurt.