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
2001 UK Championship (snooker) in the semi-final against Mark Williams. This was the first UK Championship held in York, becoming only the fourth venue in the championship's history. Defending champion John Higgins was the number 1 seed with World Champion Ronnie O'Sullivan seeded 2. The remaining places were allocated to players based on the world rankings. The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below: All rounds 2001 UK Championship (snooker) The 2001 UK Championship was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place at the Barbican Centre in York, England. The event started on 3 December 2001 and the televised stages