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
2016 International Championship (snooker) 2016 International Championship (snooker) The 2016 International Championship was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 23 and 30 October 2016 at the Baihu Media Broadcasting Centre in Daqing, China. It was the eighth ranking event of the 2016/2017 season. John Higgins was the defending champion but he lost 2–6 to Ding Junhui in the quarter-finals. Mark Selby won his 9th ranking title by beating Ding Junhui 10–1 in the final. This match was a repeat of the 2016 World Championship final, in which Selby beat Ding by the 18–14 scoreline, and also the second consecutive ranking event