World No. 1 John Higgins saw off world No. 14 Jamie Cope 7-2, claiming the title of the Hainan Snooker Classic on Sunday in Boao, a county of south China's Hainan Province.

The format was best of 13. In the first frame, Higgins got 14 first and then made a mistake. Cope made it with a break of 69 and won the opening frame at 69-14. Higgins came back in the second frame and leveled the score 1-1. Higgins took the following three frames and broadened the score to 4-1.

Cope showed signs of recovery after the interval, winning the sixth frame to make it 2-4. However, though Cope tried hard to fight back, Higgins did not give him any chance and won the following three frames with two centuries, securing his 7-2 victory.

Higgins said he was lucky to win the match. He said there were several chances for Cope to win, but he made mistakes.

Higgins will next prepare for the China open at the end of this month. [ The four-day event attracted 16 top players, among whom 10 players rank top 16 in the world, including the third-ranked world champion Neil Robertson, former world champion Graeme Dott, the Englishman trio of Peter Ebdon, Allister Carter and Shaun Murphy.