{"id":6473,"date":"2026-04-12T08:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T08:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?p=6473"},"modified":"2026-04-12T08:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T08:14:08","slug":"john-higgins-hails-rising-snooker-star-who-left-him-feeling-really-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?p=6473","title":{"rendered":"John Higgins hails rising snooker star who left him ‘feeling really old’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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John Higgins reckons Stan Moody \u2018hits the ball as well as anyone\u2019 (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rising snooker star Stan Moody earned high praise from four-time world champion John Higgins after their recent match, with the teenager leaving the veteran \u2018feeling really old\u2019 at the table.<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old beat the Wizard of Wishaw 5-4 at the World Open in Yushan last month as he continues his climb up the world rankings as Britain\u2019s brightest young talent on the baize.<\/p>\n

It was the first time the pair had played professionally and Higgins was thoroughly impressed with the world number 44.<\/p>\n

In fact, the 50-year-old was made to feel his years in a way he hadn\u2019t previously during his immense career, which reached 2,000 pro matches when he faced Moody.<\/p>\n

Asked how highly he rates Moody after their Yushan meeting, Higgins told Metro<\/strong>: \u2018Highly, very highly, with the way he hits the ball. <\/p>\n

\u2018It was funny because I was getting so many texts from a few people saying, do you know this is your 2000th match?<\/p>\n

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\u2018I went out and Stan was potting them off the lampshades, and I\u2019m thinking to myself, \u201cI feel old here.\u201d That\u2019s one of the first times I really felt really old, playing that match. <\/p>\n

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Stan Moody is looking to make an impression on the World Championship this season (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018It was a crazy feeling, but I managed to get myself back into it, but then Stan got over the line really well.<\/p>\n

\u2018I think just looking at his face, I just felt, \u201cMy God, I feel old here.\u201d I go to the toilet, I look in the mirror and I\u2019m like, \u201cWow.\u201d I\u2019ve just got to try and knock that out of me. You can\u2019t be thinking of things like that because it\u2019s not good for your snooker.\u2019<\/p>\n

Moody has already been on tour for three seasons and the progress has been notable, reaching his first two ranking quarter-finals this season at the Wuhan Open and British Open.<\/p>\n

Higgins reckons there is plenty more to come from him as well, adding: \u2018I\u2019d obviously been watching his progress in the last year or two and he had a little problem with his cue action, he spoke about maybe getting up and down a lot off the shots, but he\u2019s a lot more fluent now. <\/p>\n

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Moody is working towards breaking into the world\u2019s top 32 (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018Listen, he hits the ball as well as anyone. Honestly, I was so impressed with him and I think it\u2019s great. I think it\u2019s great for him going forward. He\u2019s really improved.<\/p>\n

\u2018And he seems to be doing a few things off the table as well on social media. He\u2019s filming different things, which is great for young people in the game. He\u2019s definitely on the right path, without a doubt.\u2019<\/p>\n

Moody described his win over Higgins, in which he made six half-centuries, as probably his finest victory since turning pro.<\/p>\n

\u2018It felt amazing to beat John in China,\u2019 Moody told BestBettingSites.co.uk. \u2018Probably my best win on tour. <\/p>\n

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Moody his the highest ranked teenager on tour (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018I\u2019ve beaten other players like Kyren Wilson, Ding Junhui, Barry Hawkins, Ali Carter. But yeah, it felt amazing, in front of a big crowd as well.\u2019<\/p>\n

Moody is looking to finish off the season on a high by reaching the Crucible for the first time, but must win two qualifying matches to get there.<\/p>\n

His first comes against Robbie Williams over two sessions on Sunday morning and evening.<\/p>\n

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Arrow<\/title>\n<\/svg>MORE: Kyren Wilson names the World Snooker Championship qualifier to avoid at the Crucible<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/svg>MORE: Mark Davis returns to scene of \u2018brutal\u2019 defeats relishing scrap to extend epic career<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/svg>MORE: Zhao Xintong waltzes to snooker history now faces weight of the past at World Championship<\/span><\/p>\n
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John Higgins hails rising snooker star who left him ‘feeling really old’
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#John #Higgins #hails #rising #snooker #star #left #feeling<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Higgins reckons Stan Moody \u2018hits the ball as well as anyone\u2019 (Picture: Getty Images)…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2003,4771,5196,1908,661,1512,1765,541],"class_list":["post-6473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-feeling","tag-hails","tag-higgins","tag-john","tag-left","tag-rising","tag-snooker","tag-star"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2259313757_1775968517.jpg",1200,630,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2259313757_1775968517-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2259313757_1775968517-300x158.jpg",300,158,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2259313757_1775968517-768x403.jpg",640,336,true],"large":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2259313757_1775968517-1024x538.jpg",640,336,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2259313757_1775968517.jpg",1200,630,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2259313757_1775968517.jpg",1200,630,false],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2259313757_1775968517-1024x538.jpg",1024,538,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2259313757_1775968517-540x340.jpg",540,340,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?author=1"},"category_info":"Sports<\/a>","tag_info":"Sports","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}