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
2002 World Snooker Championship 2002 World Snooker Championship The 2002 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the 2002 Embassy World Snooker Championship for the purposes of sponsorship) was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 20 April and 6 May 2002 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. Ronnie O'Sullivan was the defending champion, but he lost in the semi-finals 13 frames to 17 against Stephen Hendry and became another first time champion who fell to the Crucible curse and could not defend his first World title. Peter Ebdon won his only world title by defeating seven-time World Champion Hendry 18–17