John Higgins (snooker player) title, which prompted Steve Davis to comment "I think John Higgins is the best snooker player I've ever seen in my life". Despite the victory, Higgins lost the world number one ranking to Mark Williams. Higgins had a poor 2011/2012 season, reaching only two quarter finals of major ranking events. His season-best performance was reaching the semi-finals of the Masters, where he lost 4–6 to Shaun Murphy. Before the start of his World Championship title defence, he admitted that his performance levels had not been good enough and that he had not been trying hard enough, managing just one or
John Spencer (snooker player) 1970s as snooker emerged from a phase of obscurity to become one of Britain’s most popular sports. From 1969 to 1978, only three players defeated Spencer in the World Championship (Ray Reardon, Alex Higgins and Perrie Mans) and from 1973 to 1977 he did not lose a World Championship match by more than two frames. Pivotal in the rise of snooker as one of Britain's most popular sports was the 1972 World Championship final. As defending champion in the 1972 event, Spencer beat Fred Davis 31–21 and Eddie Charlton 37–32, before facing championship debutant Alex Higgins in the final. The