Cueing up for the snooker world championship- John Higgins
Bettor.com profiles the main players and contenders for this year’s world championship
John Higgins is the defending world champion and provisional world number one. He is a winner of 21 world ranking titles, and has won the World Championship three times in his illustrious career.
Higgins comes to Sheffield as one of the favourites, and has been superb this season, and looks good to make it four world crowns. His first world title at Sheffield came in 1998, and the last two have come in the past three years.
The Wizard of Wishaw has made a semi-final appearance or better in all but two of the tournaments this season, and has dominated the world rankings, firmly holding on to the number one spot.
He has made two finals, losing one and winning won. His triumph came at the Welsh Open, and the defeat came surprisingly to Ding Junhui at the UK Championship.
Higgins could have won nearly everything this season, which is a sign of how well he has been playing. As a world champion, he has set the standard for the rest to beat. He is third in the all-time list of century breaks, quite a bit behind Ronnie O’Sullivan in second and a long way off Stephen Hendry. Both Higgins and O’Sullivan are on three world crowns, whilst Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry hold more, six and seven respectively.
Higgins has always been one of the world’s greats. He is still currently the only man to have reached world number one and be world champion in the quickest time since turning professional. Higgins’ style of play has improved dramatically over the past few seasons, taking into consideration that he went nearly three years without a title at the start of 2001. His matchplay-style has propelled him to be the world’s best. His grit and determination have seen him triumph in winning his last two world crowns, and his ability to come back from many losing positions has puzzled many opponents, especially in 2009.
En route to winning his third crown, Higgins encountered some of the most difficult matches in his career. Higgins was 12-10 down to Jamie Cope in the last 32, and used all of his experience to snatch victory from Cope, who looked for all the world to beat him. Also, in a war of attrition with Mark Selby, and a repeat of the 2007 final, Higgins managed to turn the match around from 12-11, with Selby having played some exceptional snooker, with three centuries in the opening three frames. Selby, like Cope, looked set to beat Higgins as well.
As well as last season, Higgins has been involved in some of the most dramatic matches ever seen this season. At the start of the season, his battle with Neil Robertson at the Grand Prix in October was intense. Higgins stood on the verge of defeat. Higgins had clawed his way back to a final-frame decider. The match was decided on the final black. Robertson had attempted a pot and looked odds on to leave it on. He didn’t, and Higgins was left with an impossible pot, with which he missed, and left Robertson to clinch the most dramatic of wins.
When Higgins and O’Sullivan clash on the snooker table, we are set for fireworks. At the Grand Prix this season, Higgins defeated O’Sullivan in another final-frame decider. At the UK Championship, they met in the semis. Higgins had opened up a massive lead, leading 8-2, and needed one more frame for an appearance in the final. Cue the comeback, and Ronnie somehow took the match to a deciding frame, and missed a sitter in that, which allowed Higgins to clinch a match that was made harder than it should have been.
Higgins has many years of experience, and is best-placed to judge his own abilities as to whether he can retain his crown. From the way he has played so far this season, and what he did at last year’s championships, it looks like it will be very hard to beat him over the longer-frame format.
Tags: