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 play in an all-Chinese match, beating fellow countryman Liang Wenbo 13–12, having led 6–2 in the process. Having trailed 3–5, 4-time world champion John Higgins beat Mark Allen 13–9. Stephen Maguire also beat Rory McLeod 13–3 with a session to spare to reach his first crucible quarterfinal since 2012. John Higgins advanced to his first semifinal since his 2011 World Championship win by defeating Kyren Wilson 13–6. With the score at 3–3 Wilson miscued and split his tip, leading to a 15-minute tip replacement break. The defending champion Mark Selby beat the previous year's semifinalist Marco Fu 13–3 with a