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
1995 Masters (snooker) 1995 Masters (snooker) The 1995 Benson & Hedges Masters was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place between 5 and 12 February 1995 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England. The wild-card players were John Higgins, who had won the 1994 Grand Prix, and Mark Williams, who won the 1994 Benson & Hedges Championship. Both of them were 19 years old. Higgins defeated Tony Drago, Darren Morgan, defending champion Alan McManus and Jimmy White, before losing 3–9 against Ronnie O'Sullivan in the final. At the age of 19 years and 69 days O'Sullivan became the youngest Masters champion.