Higgins aims to overtake O'Sullivan to be No. 1

Snooker world champion John Higgins is looking to clinch the Chinese Open title and therefore top the world rankings at the end of this season.

Avoiding direct comments on the competition between him and official world No. 1 Ronnie O'Sullivan, Higgins on Monday showed his confidence to outperform the widely-recognized genius on the table.

"Of course I want to be the winner," Higgins said of his expectation on the China Open which kicked off on Monday.

That demonstrated the Scot's determination to grab the world number one place from O'Sullivan, who will have a wide gap to fill up with around 10,000 points down and only two ranking events to go this season. If the Higgins won this week's tournament, he will definitely beat the three-time world champion to top the table with another 7,000 points awarded.

"Now I (provisionally) rank first and Ronnie is second," he said at a Chinese sponsor's press conference, " but you also have Ding Junhui. It's going to be tough because you have so many good players."

"Mark Selby also has a good chance this week. Hopefully it will be a good tournament."

Selby, provisionally ranking 11th, has the same Chinese sponsor with Higgins.

All the world top 16 players are competing in the week-long Beijing tournament, which celebrates its sixth year since inauguration in 2005. Home star Ding will try to win his second China Open title and a 55,000-pound prize.

Source:Xinhua