Higgins hits 1,000th century in English Open defeat

John Higgins first scored a century over 30 years ago

John Higgins became only the second player to make 1,000 career centuries as he fell to a narrow 4-3 last-16 defeat by Mark Allen in the English Open.

Ronnie O'Sullivan reached the landmark in 2019, with Higgins back on 745 three-figure breaks at the time.

But he got there on Thursday as scores of 108 and 109 saw the 49-year-old draw level at 3-3 before Allen took a long and tense final frame in Brentwood.

Four-time world champion Higgins has had 13 maximum 147 breaks in his career, again only second to O'Sullivan. His first century came in the 1992-93 season, with his most prolific campaign coming in 2021-22 when he hit 58 tons.

Reigning English champion Judd Trump moved to 998 centuries during his 4-2 win over Fan Zhengyi. Trump will now play another Chinese player Wu Yize in the quarter-finals.

"It's a good achievement. I've played this game for so long to get to that milestone. You have to be proud of that," said Higgins.

"I'm really proud. To be honest, I wanted to get there before Judd. I thought that I have a 14-year head start on him.

"It is good to be second to Ronnie O'Sullivan, the best ever. Judd will obviously go on and probably eclipse Ronnie's century record."

Allen faces Chris Wakelin or Pang Junxu and Mark Selby will play India's Ishpreet Singh Chadha, the first Indian to reach the quarter-finals of a ranking event in 11 years.

He only joined the tour at the start of last season after moving to snooker from being a professional gamer playing Counterstrike Global Offensive.

Neil Robertson will play either Barry Hawkins or Kyren Wilson in the final quarter-final.