Robert Milkins will play John Higgins in World Snooker Championships

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Gloucester's Robert Milkins will face four-time winner John Higgins in the opening round of the World Snooker Championships after booking his place at the Crucible.

After wins over amateurs William Lemons and Darryl Hill in the opening two qualifying rounds at Ponds Forge, Milkins was pushed all the way by Andrew Higginson before coming through 10-9.

His best-of-19-frame Crucible clash against Higgins start with nine frames on Saturday afternoon and then be played to a finish on Sunday night.

Milkins said: "It's not a bad draw, I am quite pleased with that.

"He won the Welsh Open this season but I have beaten him the last four times we have met.

"I'd like to think I was the one of the players he would have wanted to avoid in the draw."

Against Higginson, Milkins won the opening frame with a break of 104 and had a 70 in frame three, but it was nip and tuck all the way in the opening session and Higginson emerged from it 5-4 up.

A 63 break for Milkins in the opening frame of the evening session levelled the match, and he pinched frame 11 on the black after Higginson missed a frame-ball pink to move 6-5 up.

Higginson levelled, but Milkins too frame 13 with an audacious double on a re-spotted black after the scores were level at 73-73, and then opened up a two-frame gap for the first time at 8-6.

A break of 83 put Milkins within a frame of victory at 9-6 – but then Higginson dug deep and mounted a spirited fightback.

He reeled off breaks of 67 and 64 and brought the score back to 9-8 – and forced the decider on the pink.

Milkins lost the chance to play at Crucible last year when he was defeated on a re-spotted black in the decider by Gloucester colleague Michael Wasley – but there was no repeat.

A break of 65 settled any nerves and proved to be enough as Milkins booked his return to the Crucible for the sixth time in his career.

"I haven't got a bad record in deciding frames but I struggled a bit during the game," said Milkins.

"My draw was good as I had to play two amateurs to play a decent player in Andrew, and it was a different type of pressure as I was expected to win, and I let it affect me a bit."

Full draw

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John Higgins v Robert Milkins

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