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
2017 World Snooker Championship 2017 World Snooker Championship The 2017 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 2017 Betfred World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 15 April to 1 May 2017 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 19th and final ranking event of the 2016/2017 season. The tournament was the 40th anniversary of the World Championships at the Crucible and was broadcast in Europe by the BBC and Eurosport. Defending champion Mark Selby retained his title, beating John Higgins 18–15 in the final, despite falling to 4–10 behind