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
1972 World Snooker Championship 1972 World Snooker Championship The 1972 World Snooker Championship (also known as 1972 Park Drive World Snooker Championship for sponsorship reasons) was a professional snooker tournament that took place between March 1971 and 26 February 1972. In a preliminary competition the eight qualifiers were reduced to two, and they joined the eight other entrants in the competition proper. Those in the qualifying section included Alex Higgins, who became the first champion who played qualifying matches, and four former amateur champions, Ron Gross, Maurice Parkin, Pat Houlihan and Geoff Thompson. This was the first time the event was sponsored by Park