WORLD number three John Higgins remained upbeat despite seeing his hopes of claiming a first ranking title since 2012 at the Wyldecrest Parks Players Championship Grand Final ended on Friday night by Marco Fu.
Hong Kong's Fu was in fine form in their quarter-final encounter in Preston as he ran out a surprise 4-1 winner although his opponent was made to rue wasting decent opportunities in the first and second frames.
The Scot led in both of the opening frames, only to see Fu storm back to clear with breaks of 87 and 75, and although Higgins halved the deficit with an excellent 111, he was powerless as his opponent ran away with the contest.
Breaks of 79 and 66 helped Fu move into the semi-final, where he will face Gerard Greene, although Higgins was satisfied with his efforts.
"When Marco gets into a groove he is very solid and a great positional player," Higgins, who last won a ranking event in September 2012 at the Shanghai Masters, told worldsnooker.com.
"I still felt good all the way through, I just missed a couple of balls at the wrong moments. I'm still a lot happier with my game."
World number 66 Greene caused another shock by beating Mark Allen 4-2, but admitted afterwards that he was not satisfied with his performance.
"The game wasn't great but in the end a 4-2 victory is good enough for me," he said. "If I win two more matches I'll be very happy indeed."
Yu Delu could not follow up his shock victory over Ronnie O'Sullivan as Barry Hawkins ended his challenge with a 4-1 win.
The Chinese had earned the biggest triumph over his career on Thursday and although he split the first two frames with Hawkins, last year's World Championship runner-up cruised to victory following breaks of 56, 90 and 60.
He will play Judd Trump for a place in the final after the world number eight claimed a 4-2 victory over Joe Perry.
