Defending UK champion John Higgins claims snooker’s second-biggest tournament has been ruined.

Higgins, who beat Mark Williams in last year’s final, opens up against Rory McLeod in this year’s £625,000 event at the Barbican Centre in York a week tomorrow.

But the traditional best-of-17-frames format has been ditched until the semi-finals, with matches now the first to six.

Higgins is angry players were not consulted over the switch by snooker supremo Barry Hearn and said: “I don’t know why it has been done. None of the players have been officially told by Barry Hearn.

“Apparently it’s for TV coverage, but some players should have been consulted for their thoughts.

“I think it has ruined the prestige of the tournament. And I also believed this was one of the events that wasn’t going to be touched, along with the world championship.

“The big BBC events – the world championship, the Masters, and the UK Championship – all had their own identities, and the UK’s has been lost.

“It has gone down in my estimation. It’s just like all the rest of them now.”