Scottish Open: Neil Robertson beats John Higgins, faces Cao Yupeng in final

Robertson believes he has taken his game to a 'new level' recently

Former world number one Neil Robertson held off a John Higgins fightback to win 6-3 and set up a Scottish Open final against China's Cao Yupeng.

Australian Robertson, now ranked 20th, led the semi-final 4-0 after notching breaks of 117 and 135.

Four-time world champion Higgins, playing in front of his home crowd in Glasgow, hit back with three frames in a row to pile on the pressure.

But Robertson held his nerve to take the two frames required for victory.

"The better man won," Higgins told BBC Sport.

"The chances I got were probably down to his misses in the second half of the match. I totally got outplayed there so you hold your hands up and by far the better man won.

"I've always rated him as a great player. He's got to be the favourite and I think Neil will be too strong in the final for Yupeng."

Robertson, without a ranking title since June 2016, faces Cao on Sunday at 13:00 GMT, after the 27-year-old beat Judd Trump 6-4 in Saturday's other semi-final.

"The way I started the first four frames is probably up there with the best I've ever played, in terms of who I was up against and the occasion," said Robertson.

"I knew John's pedigree in coming back from big deficits but I was very focused and didn't get carried away."

Cao, ranked 67th in the world, was one of 22 Chinese players to start the Scottish Open

Cao has never won a ranking title but made headlines on Tuesday with a maximum 147 break.

The world number 67 took the first two frames against Trump and led 3-1 at the interval after an 88 break.

Trump won a tense fifth frame on the black and levelled at 3-3, but Cao won the next two and edged through after a 53 break saw Trump make it 5-4.

Cao's previous best effort at a ranking event was reaching the semi-finals of the European Masters in October, when he was beaten 6-1 by world number three Trump.