Despite not having the advantage of being involved in the early season Premier League, Higgins started with a bang and has refused to take his foot off the pedal at any point over the last six months.

He won the first ranking event of the season by virtue of a truly unbelievable spell of snooker in the Grand Prix final against Ronnie O’Sullivan. The Scot rattled in four consecutive centuries as well as breaking Stephen Hendry’s record of unanswered points – 494 to be precise.

Higgins was unlucky to come up against an inspired Ken Doherty at York before getting back to winning ways at Wembley, with a thrilling deciding-frame victory, over O’Sullivan once again.

However, what has undoubtedly been a superb season could have been so much better.

The provisional world number two reached another final in Malta but lost out 9-8 after being 8-5 up. He was then out-battled 5-4 by James Wattana at The Welsh Open before again missing out on further glory, this time in the final of The China Open. Locked at 8-8 against Mark Williams, Higgins missed a very pottable final green that gave his Welsh opponent the victory.

How his two final-frame setbacks will affect the Wizard of Wishaw is difficult to say but one thing you can say with confidence is that he is playing better than anyone else in the game coming into the fortnight.

Higgins' finest moment in snooker was in 1998 when he won the World Championship for the first and only time to date. That result also earned him the number one spot in the world rankings.

If the draw pans out according to the revised rankings, he will play Hendry in the semi-finals. A win would not only give him back the number one spot, it would put him one step away from a second world title.

Prediction: Semi-final agony