John Higgins

If there was any doubt about Higgins position among the pantheon of snooker’s greatest ever players, it was banished in May 2009 as he won his third Betfred.com World Snooker Championship title.
The Wizard of Wishaw had already enjoyed the glint of silverware earlier in the season as he won the Royal London Watches Grand Prix in Glasgow. Victories over Anthony Hamilton, Stephen Hendry, Ding Junhui and rising star Judd Trump put him into the final at the SECC. He saw a 7-2 lead over Ryan Day virtually evaporate at 7-6, but held himself together to clinch a 9-7 victory. It was a notable occasion for Higgins and his family as, remarkably, it was the first time that he had won a ranking tournament on Scottish soil.
"I suppose it’s vanity," said Higgins as to what motivates him to continute his quest for titles. "A few years ago people talked about the big four of myself, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Stephen Hendry and Mark Williams. Now there are a lot of great new players and people say the big four is Ronnie, Mark Selby, Stephen Maguire and Shaun Murphy. I still think I’m good enough to be in that group and I hope people will think of me that way now.”
Higgins went on to reach the final of the Bank of Beijing China Open – helped by an extraordinary comeback from 4-0 down to beat Hamilton 5-4. Peter Ebdon denied him the trophy by coming out on top 10-8 in a tight struggle, but that left Higgins match sharp and ready for the challenge of the Crucible.
A tricky opening tie against Michael Holt was negotiated 10-5, but in the second round Higgins stood on the verge of defeat against up-and-comer Jamie Cope, who blasted his way into a 12-10 lead. The drama intensified as a fan fainted in the audience, not once but twice, and the players had to return to their dressing rooms while treatment was administered. On the second occasion, at 12-12, Higgins was faced with a tough red to a centre pocket. He sensed a key moment in the tournament, and rose to the occasion by potting the red and making a match winning break of 80.
His quarter-final battle with Mark Selby was equally thrilling; Selby making five centuries only to finish on the losing side as Higgins came from 12-11 down to win the last two frames. “It’s my best win ever, definitely,” Higgins asserted after the match. “That shows how highly I regard Mark and his performance.”
In the semis he faced another explosive young star in Mark Allen, who gave Higgins the fright of his life by coming from 14-4 down to within three frames at 15-12. but again the Scot retained his composure to close out victory 17-13.
The final against Shaun Murphy turned out to be Higgins’ easiest match, especially after he had pulled away from 5-5 to lead 11-5 overnight. The closing stages seemed a formality as Higgins closed out an 18-9 triumph.
He became only the fourth player, after Hendry, Davis and O’Sullivan, to lift the famous trophy three time at the Crucible.
“To come through the matches with the standard put up by Cope, Selby and Allen, three of the best young players we have in the game, and to fight fire with fire when they played really well, to come through that gave me an enormous boost of confidence coming into the final,” he said. “Take away the money, to join three of the best players that have ever lived, to win it three times here at the Crucible means everything to me.”
Higgins won his first World title in 1998 when he beat Ken Doherty 18-12 in the final, and his second in 2007 when he got the better of Selby 18-13.
He has now won 20 ranking titles in all and, with a superb tactical game to go alongside his break-building class, he is considered alongside Steve Davis as one of the best all-round players of the modern era.
In the 2006 Grand Prix final against O’Sullivan, Higgins rolled in four consecutive centuries and scored 494 unanswered points – both records. Later in the same season, the two met again in the Masters final at Wembley. Tied at 9-9, O’Sullivan opened the deciding frame with a break of 60 only for Higgins to clear the table with a brilliant 64 which included several do-or-die pots. “This win will stay with me for the rest of my days,” he said.
Higgins has made five competitive 147 breaks, including two in consecutive matches – one in the 2003 LG Cup final and the next in the first round of the subsequent British Open.
A devoted fan of Celtic, Higgins’ other hobbies include playing golf and poker. He enjoys gourmet food and cooking and appeared alongside Shaun Murphy on BBC show Ready Steady Cook. He and wife Denise have young sons called Pierce and Oliver and a baby daughter called Claudia

The 2007/8 season was a disappointing one for Higgins as he failed to reach a ranking event semi-final.
He did build some momentum in the latter part of the campaign by reaching the quarter-finals of the Welsh Open and Honghe Industrial China Open.
At Newport he beat David Roe and Ding Junhui before losing to Mark Selby, then in Beijing he knocked out Joe Swail and Mark King before Selby again ended his progress.
Higgins was still hopeful of defending his 888.com World Snooker Championship crown – which would have made him the first back-to-back Crucible winner since Stephen Hendry in 1996.
He started well enough with a 10-5 defeat of Matthew Stevens, but his defence ended in the last 16 with a 13-9 reverse against Ryan Day. Higgins dropped four places down the rankings to No 5, though he starts the 2008/09 campaign 14th in the provisional list.
The previous year at Sheffield, Higgins opened with comfortable wins over Michael Holt and Fergal O’Brien then proved he was close to peak form by beating Ronnie O’Sullivan in the quarter-finals. In the semis he trailed friend Stephen Maguire 14-10 but produced perhaps the best comeback of his career to triumph 17-15. Within that last session he also made the 1000th century break in the history of the Crucible.
Higgins was cruising on the first day of the final against surprise package Mark Selby as he build a 12-4 lead. Back came fearless Selby to 12-10 on day two, putting Higgins under intense pressure. But the Wizard of Wishaw responded in the manner of a true champion, pulling away from 14-13 to win the last four frames. A vital 57 clearance made it 16-13 and he added the next two with brilliant breaks of 122 and 78 for an 18-13 victory at 12.55am.
Having won his first world title back in 1998, Higgins ended a long wait to lift the trophy again (only namesake Alex, the 1972 and 1982 champion, had to wait longer) and joined the select band of players to have won snooker’s most prestigious title more than once. In the modern era - since 1969 - only John Spencer, Ray Reardon, Alex Higgins, Steve Davis, Hendry, Mark Williams and O’Sullivan have achieved that feat.
"In those last four frames I think I played the best snooker of my life under that sort of pressure,” said the 31-year-old. "To join players like Hendry, O’Sullivan and Williams as winners of the World Championship more than once is a great honour.
"It was nine years ago that I won this. You might win two or three tournaments in the year but if you haven’t won or done well in this one people think you haven’t had a good season. You think you have a lot of time but then it creeps up on you and other players are going past you in the rankings. So to get back to No 1 is fantastic."
The previous season had also been an impressive one for Higgins. In the Grand Prix final against O’Sullivan he rolled in four consecutive centuries and scored 494 unanswered points – both records. “It really was unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like that before,” said a bamboozled O’Sullivan.
The two met again in the SAGA Insurance Masters final at Wembley. Tied at 9-9, O’Sullivan opened the deciding frame with a break of 60 only for Higgins to clear the table with a brilliant 64 which included several do-or-die pots.
“This win will stay with me for the rest of my days,” he said. “To beat Ronnie in the final with that clearance in the last frame, I could not have written the script better.”
His first career highlight was in 1998 when, aged just 22, he won the world title with an 18-12 victory over Doherty at the Crucible. That triumph also gave him the world No 1 spot which he held for two years. He reached the world final in 2001 but lost 18-14 to O’Sullivan.
Higgins has won 18 ranking titles and made five competitive 147 breaks, including two in consecutive matches – one in the 2003 LG Cup final and the next in the first round of the subsequent British Open.
A devoted fan of Celtic, Higgins other hobbies include playing golf and poker. He enjoys gourmet food and cooking and appeared alongside Shaun Murphy on BBC show Ready Steady Cook.