Five-times winner Hendry had a huge task on his hands, trailing 6-2 from the interval and was unable to overcome the sizeable deficit.

Higgins, who will get married to fiance Denise before Christmas, now faces Mark Williams for the title on Sunday.

"I haven't had a great start to the season but I always thought I'd play my best snooker after Christmas," Higgins said.

"There have been a lot of things going on in my life with plans for the wedding and sorting out my new house.

"I think I'll play better in the New Year but it will be a nice bonus to win this tournament and have a good run in the China Open to go off on honeymoon even happier."

Unforced errors

Hendry took the first frame of the session to trail by three, attempting to emulate his quarter-final victory over Stephen Lee when he came back from an identical scoreline to win 9-8.

But unforced and uncharacteristic mistakes cost him his place in the final.

He said: "I lost the match this afternoon.

"At the worst it should have been 5-3 but at this level you can't afford to make mistakes because you'll get punished."

Higgins made a break of 53 in the opening frame but Hendry looked certain to take it before missing a simple brown after a run of 46.

Higgins duly sealed that frame and a break of 57 in the next set him on the way to a 2-0 lead.

Competent performance

The third frame was another scrappy affair and again it went to Higgins before Hendry fashioned 63 to win the fourth for 3-1.

He should have then made it 3-2 but went in off the blue splitting the pack of reds and Higgins capitalised with 64 to lead 4-1.

Breaks of 46 and 43 helped Hendry back to within two frames before Higgins took the seventh on the black.

And Higgins extended his advantage in the final frame of the session with a break of 91 before taking the final three frames he needed to seal the victory.

"Little bits of luck didn't go my way but generally John was the best player over the day so I've got no complaints," Hendry added.

"I was furious with myself for missing the brown in the first frame but I should have done a lot better in the first session and John was too solid in the evening."