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Higgins takes break

Kieran Daley
Tuesday 17 October 2000 00:00 BST
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John Higgins will not complete a successful defence of his Grand Prix title in Telford this week after the Scot announced he would pull out of the event to attend his brother's wedding.

John Higgins will not complete a successful defence of his Grand Prix title in Telford this week after the Scot announced he would pull out of the event to attend his brother's wedding.

Even though Higgins fired in a hat-trick of century breaks - 121, 102 and 124 during his 5-0 second-round whitewash of Paul Sweeny yesterday - he will not take any further part in the tournament following his last-16 match against Terry Murphy on Thursday.

Higgins, the closest pursuer of Mark Williams in the world rankings, was due to play his quarter-final on Friday at 6.45pm.

That is less than five hours after elder brother Jason is due to tie the knot with fiancée Linda Miller in Motherwell.

"It was a tough decision, but I'm certainly not going to miss my brother's wedding for anything," said Higgins.

One player with every intention of being around at the end of the tournament is Jimmy White, who maintained his recent good form by beating Hong Kong's Marco Fu 5-3.

White, runner-up to Peter Ebdon at the British Open last week, put together runs of 63, 98 and 58 on the way to securing a last-16 meeting with Alan McManus or Drew Henry.

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