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 Higgins (snooker player) Kyren Wilson and Barry Hawkins to reach his first World Championship final in six years and, at 41 years of age, be the oldest finalist in 35 years. It was also a rematch of the 2007 final as he faced Mark Selby and Higgins started well to take a 10–4 lead. He then lost 12 of the next 14 frames, but pulled back to 16–15 down, before Selby won the two frames he required to claim the title. Higgins would also reach the final of the 2018 World Snooker Championship – his 7 World Championship final – where he would