John Higgins has dismissed the claim that winning a tournament just before the World Championship is bad for your Crucible chances, saying he proved that wrong himself three decades ago.
Higgins is still on a high after his brilliant Tour Championship success in Manchester, when he came from 8-5 behind to beat Mark Selby 10-8 in the final, in the last event before the 17-day Crucible marathon.
Traditionally, players who have lifted a trophy just prior to Sheffield have rarely gone all the way in the biggest tournament of all.
And the victors at the Tour Championship since it was first played in 2019 have found it particularly hard to recreate that form straight afterwards. Four of the six winners of that event have gone out in the first round at the Crucible, with only one getting as far as the quarter-finals.
But Higgins, who plays Joe O'Connor in the first round on Monday, isn't worrying about any of that, leaning on his own past experience as he heads to Sheffield.
"Stephen Hendry said to me, 'remember the first time you won the world title you beat me in the British Open just before'. So he said, don't be believing all that (talk), that if you win the last tournament before the World Championship you can't win the World Championship," Higgins told Sporting Life.
"It's been done before, albeit it was 27 years ago. I'd rather win a big event than not win a big event, put it that way.
"But listen, I still know how difficult it's going to be at the World Championship. It's a hell of a tournament to try and win."
Higgins, who will turn 50 next month, hadn't won a ranking tournament for four years until he beat O'Connor to land the World Open title in Yushan last month. Five weeks later, he enjoyed an bigger win with glory at the Tour Championship.
The Scot, who celebrated his victory in Manchester with wife Denise and their three children, said in a television interview straight after the final that it was his best ever win.
And he insists now that it wasn't a heat of the moment call but something he truly believes.
"To this day, I would still agree it's my best," Higgins said. "I know people might say it was just after the event and I said it (when) I was delighted, but no still in my mind that's probably my biggest ever achievement, winning that Tour Championship.
"Especially beating Mark in the final, who I rate so highly in the game. He's just a smidgeon behind Ronnie O'Sullivan in my eyes. To come back from 8-5 behind to beat him, it was a great result.
"To beat someone like Mark Selby playing at that level. I'll be brutally honest, I've won my four world titles beating Ken Doherty in '98 and then beating a young Mark Selby in 2007, a young Shaun Murphy in 2009 and a young Judd Trump in 2011.
"Mark Selby nowadays is a far better player than those four versions of players. To come through and win it, after what I went through the last four years as well. That's why I said it. I'm really proud of myself. It's quite an easy thing for me to say, that it's my best win."
Higgins, who turned professional in 1992, has established himself as one of the finest players in snooker history. On top of those four world titles, he has won three UK Championship crowns and was twice victorious at the Masters.
It seemed like he might continue to shine throughout this decade when he produced a week of stunning performances to win the Players Championship title - his 31st ranking event success - in early 2021.
But then came that surprise four-year ranking title drought, which featured a number of painful defeats in finals, often from winning positions.
Higgins admits he did wonder if he would ever pick up silverware again before Yushan, but believes that success has now changed everything for him.
"I didn’t know if I was going to win another tournament because I had so many tough losses for three or four years," Higgins said. "It just slowly erodes your belief and your confidence, not winning.
"I could still see what I was producing in practice, but that doesn't mean anything when you're out there in the bear pit against the best players. You've got to have something extra and I was maybe just missing that.
"So it was massive to get over the winning line and feel, I can do it again. And then you believe in yourself a bit more. I think it's just getting over the winning line, it's unbelievable what it gives you.
"It just carried on the next few weeks, I still thought I was producing some good stuff but just lost to Shaun (Murphy) and Judd (Trump) in the other two big tournaments and then I obviously won in Manchester."
Higgins saw his World Championship plans take a back seat in recent days after his father-in-law suffered a heart attack. That meant he missed the inaugural World Champions Dinner in Sheffield.
But he is heading to the Crucible in a bid to win that fifth word title. And there is one more, very niche, factor that he believes may be in his favour.
"It's funny, I'm realising this year that I'll be on the opposite side, on table two," Higgins said.
"I think I've only been on table two maybe once in the last seven or eight years. I think the last time I was on that side, I got to the semis, when Ronnie beat me (in 2022).
"I'm actually looking forward to being back on that side of the arena. It's just little things that you're trying to take the positives from I think, trying to think good thoughts."
Related snooker links
- Richard Mann's World Championship outright preview
- World Championship: Top 16 player profiles
- Where are the young snooker players
- Perfect Snooker Player
- Snooker's GOAT: O'Sullivan by the numbers
- O'Sullivan's Triple Crown timeline
- Watch all the Crucible 147 breaks
- Should the worlds stay at the Crucible?
- History of 147 breaks
- Ronnie O'Sullivan's 147 breaks
- O'Sullivan: One of a kind
- History of snooker's number ones
- Best players never to win a world title
- Crucible memories: Ronnie's finest hour
- Crucible memories: Higgins denies Trump
- Crucible memories: White a People's Champion
- Crucible memories: Johnson stuns Davis
- Crucible memories: Foulds' dream debut
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