John Higgins beats Ronnie O'Sullivan at Scottish Open

Higgins is looking to add to his tally of 28 ranking titles, on home soil

John Higgins beat his great rival Ronnie O'Sullivan 5-2 in their Scottish Open quarter-final at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow.

The two 41-year-olds, with nine world titles between them, are both looking for their 29th ranking event victory.

Higgins stormed into a 3-0 lead before O'Sullivan edged a tense fourth frame by doubling the pink.

Higgins made it 4-1 before O'Sullivan pulled another frame back, but a break of 104 took the Scot home.

He will play Judd Trump, a 5-3 winner over Robert Milkins, in Saturday's semi-finals.

Higgins told BBC Scotland: "Whenever you play Ronnie, you feel like even if you play well there is still a chance you could lose, so I am delighted.

"I was happy with my all round game and I feel great now.

"It has been a really good first half of the season and I would love to carry it on now. I am confident and would love to try to win it for the Scottish people."

Table complaints 'fall on deaf ears'

Higgins was unhappy with the state of the table at the Emirates Arena, however, telling event organisers they need to "pull their finger out".

"There is just no grip on the cloth and that is after five days' play," he noted. "We have said it until we are blue in the face to the powers that be and it just falls on deaf ears.

"The tables will be re-covered tomorrow for the semi-finals but do the maths. We have had five days of continual play with lots of matches, and then they re-cover the table for the final three matches.

"They have got to pull their finger out and re-cover it more - it's as simple as that."

The other semi-final will see Hong Kong's Marco Fu, a 5-1 winner over Englishman Mark Davis, face world number 59 Yu De Lu, who pipped fellow Chinese player Liang Wenbo 5-4 in the last eight.