Snooker ace Ross Muir heads to Sweden in a confident frame of mind
SNOOKER star Ross Muir feels it will take an impressive performance to stop him as he bids to regain his place at the sport’s top table.
The Musselburgh potter is top of the class in the Q Tour – the second tier of the game – as he prepares to fly out to Sweden tomorrow (Friday).
Muir, who has trained with four-time world champion John Higgins, is aiming to finish first on the Q Tour and win back the tour card he held from 2013 to 2019.
He said: “At the moment my game is coming together really well.
“I’ve made a couple of technical changes and a slight change to my gear and it seems to have been transformative.
“I’ve been playing so, so tight and steady recently – as today has shown, because I got a result against John in training.
“I did well in the Scottish snooker event as well, won the first event of the season and I’m in the final for the second event.
“I’m top of the Q Tour rankings at the moment and won the first event as well.
“I’ve got so many things to take confidence from going forward and I’m just loving snooker at the moment.”
Muir spoke to Courier Sport on Monday afternoon as he prepared for a busy week.
He has been called up to play in the qualifiers for the German Masters and defeated world number 110 Oliver Brown last night (Wednesday) 5-1.
This afternoon he meets Liam Highfield.
Victory at the Morningside Arena in Leicester would mean one more game this afternoon (Thursday) before he quickly returns north of the border and flies out to Sweden tomorrow.
Muir was looking forward to both competitions and felt that regular play had really strengthened his game.
The 27-year-old won six matches in a row to win the opening event of the Q Tour season in North Shields in early September.
Since then, he has reached the second round of the second event and lost in the semi-finals of the third event in Belgium.
These performances mean Muir is top of the Q Tour rankings at the halfway point of the campaign.
The next event takes place in Stockholm and the final is played on Sunday.
Muir said: “The standard at the Q Tour is phenomenal.
“You have players who have been in the top 64 for a long time.
“You’ve got ranked event winners in there and to perform like I have so far is further proof that what I do adds up.
“I’m actually taking a lot from my recent performances and I’m sure they’ll continue. You can’t predict results but the way I’m playing it’s going to take a good performance to beat me. I’ll be there or thereabouts.”