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
2010 Masters (snooker) wild-card to the 2010 Masters, becoming the first ever black player to appear at the final stage of the tournament. Total: 20 2010 Masters (snooker) The 2010 PokerStars.com Masters was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 10–17 January 2010 at the Wembley Arena in London, England. This was the first time that the Masters was sponsored by PokerStars.com. Mark Selby won his 2nd Masters title by beating defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan 10–9 in the final after trailing 4–1, 5–3 and 9–6. Defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan was the number 1 seed with World Champion John Higgins seeded 2.