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
Snooker season 2010/2011 ranking event. The Premier League was for the first time part of the Main Tour. The Jiangsu Classic was renamed to the Wuxi Classic, and three other invitation events were introduced to the calendar: the Power Snooker, the World Seniors Championship, and Snooker Shoot-Out. The Scottish Professional Championship was held for the first time since 1989. At the end of the season John Higgins was named the "World Snooker Player of the Year" and the "Snooker Writers Player of the Year", Judd Trump the "Fans Player of the Year", Mark Williams the "Players Player of the Year" and Jack Lisowski