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
1998 Grand Prix (snooker) 1998 Grand Prix (snooker) The 1998 Skoda Grand Prix was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 14–25 October 1998 at the Guild Hall in Preston, England. Dominic Dale was the defending champion, but he lost his last 64 match against Robin Hull. Stephen Lee and Marco Fu both contested a ranking tournament final for the first time in their careers, Fu in his first tournament as a professional; Lee prevailed 9–2 to claim his first ranking title. Defending champion Dominic Dale was the number 1 seed with World Champion John Higgins seeded 2. The remaining places were