John Higgins

John Higgins (born 18 May 1975) is a Scottish professional snooker player.

He has won 31 ranking titles, placing him in third position on the all-time list of ranking event winners, behind Ronnie O'Sullivan (40) and Stephen Hendry (36).

As amateurs, Higgins and Mark Williams faced each other in two 1991 finals, the World Junior Masters, which Higgins won, and the British Junior Championship, which Williams won.

Since turning professional in 1992, he has won four World Championships, three UK Championships and two Masters titles, for a total of nine Triple Crown titles; this puts him behind only O'Sullivan (23), Hendry (18) and Steve Davis (15), and level with Mark Selby.

A prolific break-builder, Higgins has compiled over 900 century breaks in professional competition, including 13 maximum breaks, second to O'Sullivan's 15.

He is the oldest player to make a maximum break in professional competition, having set the record at the 2024 Championship League when he was aged 48 years and 268 days.

He has reached the world number 1 ranking position four times.

With O'Sullivan and Williams, he is one of the three players known as the "Class of '92", who all turned professional during the 1992–93 snooker season.

Higgins turned professional in 1992 and reached the quarter-finals of the 1993 British Open during his first season on the tour, losing 3–5 to Jimmy White.

He rose to prominence in the 1994–95 season when he defeated Dave Harold 9–6 in the 1994 Grand Prix final, winning his first ranking title at age 19.

In the 1994/1995 rankings, he was 51st; in the 1995/1996 rankings, he was 11th; and in the 1996/1997 and 1997/1998 rankings, he was second.

He also won the 1995 International Open and the 1995 British Open before his 20th birthday, making him the first teenager to win three ranking events in one season.

He reached the finals of the 1995 Welsh Open, losing 3–9 to Steve Davis, and the 1995 Masters, losing by the same score to Ronnie O'Sullivan.

He made his Crucible debut at the 1995 World Championship, but lost 3–10 in the first round to fellow Scottish player Alan McManus.

Later that year he won his fourth ranking title at the inaugural 1995 German Open (a precursor of the current German Masters) beating Ken Doherty 9–3 in the final.

Higgins successfully defended his title at the 1996 International Open, defeating Rod Lawler 9–3 in the final.

He recorded his first Crucible victories at the 1996 World Championship, defeating Martin Clarke 10–5 in the first round and McManus 13–5 in the second round.

Facing O'Sullivan in the quarter-finals, he led 12–10, but lost the match 12–13 after O'Sullivan won the last three frames.

This was the first of eight consecutive years in which Higgins reached at least the quarter-finals of the World Championship.

At the 1996 UK Championship, he defeated Tony Drago, Wiliams, and Doherty to reach the final, where he faced the reigning world champion Stephen Hendry.

Higgins trailed 4–8 before winning five consecutive frames to lead 9–8; however, he lost the final 9–10, after failing to score a point in the last two frames.

He won his sixth ranking title at the 1997 European Open, defeating Parrott 9–5 in the final.

He reached the quarter-finals again at the 1997 World Championship, but lost 9–13 to eventual winner Doherty.

He won the 1997 German Open, beating Parrott 9–4 in the final, and won his eighth ranking title at the 1998 British Open, beating Hendry 9–8 in the final.

At the 1998 World Championship, Higgins defeated Jason Ferguson 10–8 in the first round, Anthony Hamilton 13–9 in the second round, John Parrott 13–11 in the quarter-finals, and O'Sullivan 17–9 in the semi-finals, before beating the defending champion Doherty 18–12 in the final to win his first world title and ninth ranking title.

After winning the world title, Higgins became world number one in the 1998/1999 rankings, ending Hendry's eight consecutive years in the top spot.

During the 1998–99 season, Higgins won the 1998 UK Championship, defeating Matthew Stevens 10–6 in the final, and the 1999 Masters, defeating Doherty 10–8 in the final.

This completed his career Triple Crown and also made him third player, after Steve Davis and Hendry, to hold the World Championship, UK Championship, and Masters titles simultaneously, an achievement later emulated by Mark Williams.

Higgins is also one of six players to have won both the World Championship and UK Championship in the same calendar year; the others are Steve Davis, Hendry, Parrott, O'Sullivan, and Mark Selby.

Higgins held the world number one position for two seasons, when Mark Williams replaced him at the top of the rankings.

Higgins and Williams met in the 1999 Grand Prix final, where Higgins came from 2–6 down to claim a 9–8 victory.

They also met in the 2000 World Championship semi-finals, where Higgins led 14–10 but lost 15–17 after Williams won seven of the last eight frames.

He made a then-record 14 centuries during the tournament (Hendry set the current record of 16 centuries at the 2002 World Championship, which Mark Williams equalled at the 2022 World Championship).

Higgins's success in ranking events had seen him advance rapidly up the world rankings.

In 2010, a tabloid newspaper carried out a sting operation in Ukraine, which claimed to show Higgins and his manager arranging to lose specific frames in future matches for money.

An investigation cleared Higgins of match-fixing allegations but the WPBSA found that he had brought the sport into disrepute by failing to disclose an invitation to breach the sport's betting rules and giving the impression of agreeing to it.

Higgins was banned from professional competition for six months and fined £75,000.

After winning his fourth world title in 2011, Higgins' form became less consistent.

He reached three consecutive World Championship finals between 2017 and 2019, but lost each time, to Mark Selby in 2017, Mark Williams in 2018 and Judd Trump in 2019.

In the 2021–22 season, he lost five major finals, including the 2022 Tour Championship, when he led Neil Robertson 9–4 but lost the match 9–10.