World Snooker Championship
Date:
18 April-4 May Venue:
Crucible Theatre, Sheffield
Coverage:
Live coverage each day on BBC Two, BBC Red Button and BBC Sport website (UK only), updates on BBC Radio 5 Live.
 Higgins is well on course to add to his 1997 and 2007 World titles
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Scotland's John Higgins is closing in on a third world title after extending his lead over England's Shaun Murphy to 16-8 in Monday's afternoon session.
Resuming at 11-5, Higgins capitalised on a number of Murphy errors to claim three of the first four frames.
Murphy showed signs of a late comeback by winning both the 21st and 22nd frame, the latter after a break of 79.
But Higgins took the next two frames to leave him needing just two more in the evening session for victory.
Higgins came into Monday's afternoon session knowing that no-one had ever overturned an 11-5 overnight deficit to win a final at the Crucible Theatre.
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606: DEBATE
PhilSlocombe
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The pressure was clearly on Murphy and a number of times throughout he made simple errors upon which Higgins could capitalise.
A poor miss of the yellow in the first frame of the session allowed Higgins to return to the table to clear and extend his lead to seven frames.
Murphy responded well in frame 18 with a break of 91, his second largest of the match, but any hopes he had of using this as a launchpad for a challenge to Higgins' lead were ended in the next frame when, with the scores at 49-all, the Scot claimed the blue and pink to edge it.
Again, in the next frame, Murphy was his own worst enemy, missing an easy red when well-placed to allow Higgins to extend his lead to 14-6 courtesy of a 3-1 mini-session scoreline.
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MATCH STATS - MURPHY : HIGGINS
Balls potted:
314/354 : 427/457
Pot success:
89% : 91%
Safety success:
76% : 88%
Long pot success:
47% : 54%
Rest success:
91% : 93%
Table time:
49% : 51%
Total points:
1076 : 1564
Ave shot duration (s):
28: 23
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Murphy redeemed himself in frame 21, potting a superb long red to put him on course to a frame-winning break of 47.
He then amassed a break of 79 to win the next courtesy of some of his best potting and positional play of the match.
Higgins' class came through in the following frame as he brought an end to Murphy's minor fightback thanks to a break of 61.
In the final frame of the session, Murphy looked on course to claim it after engineering a 59-52 lead but he missed the yellow and his momentum was lost.
Higgins was unable to capitalise immediately but was eventually able to snooker Murphy on the yellow, drawing two fouls from his opponent to reclaim the lead and an opportunity to clear that he did not waste.
The match will resume at 2000 BST - with live coverage on BBC Two and the BBC Sport website, plus text commentary online.
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