During a career that has spanned 19 years, Scottish professional snooker player John Higgins has won 19 titles in both first ligue and cup of champions. His career has also brought him a significant amount of wealth.
Higgins started his professional snooker career as an amateur player. Before turning professional, Higgins won a few amateur tournaments. After becoming professional, Higgins began winning ranking tournaments. Higgins also became the first person to win three ranking tourneys in one season.
Higgins' success continued for the 1994/95 year. He won two ranking tournaments more and a final. Then, he became the World number one. 1998 was his first major title. Ronnie O'Sullivan beat him to the World Championship Finale in 2001. He also reached the Grand Prix final. He finished the season at World number 1.
Higgins fought Ronnie O'Sullivan during the 2006 season. He was also awarded the Welsh Open and Scottish Masters. 2004 was his fourth British Open title. He reached the final of European Championship 2005. He was also a finalist at Championship du Monde. He won his second World Championship in 2011. He was also a finalist of the Shanghai Masters Open. In 2009, he reached both the final of the International Open or the World Championship. He won the Ruhr Championship. In the 2009 season, he was the World number one.
Higgins has been a finalist in several non-ranking tournaments. He has also reached finals in a variety of pro-am tournaments. He was the only player to win all three opening tournaments in a season. He also became first player to earn a world ranking title and reach quarter-finals of a British Open event.
John Higgins reached the finals of eight World Championship tournaments during his career. He reached the finals for two Masters tournaments, including a UK Championship tournament, a Welsh Open tournament, and a Grand Prix tournament. He has been a runner up 18 times.
Higgins' career wasn't without controversy. News of the World carried out an undercover investigation in May 2010 to find that John Higgins was involved with a match-fixing operation. The allegations were investigated by David Douglas, former chief superintendent of Metropolitan Police Detectives. The investigation concluded that Higgins wasn't involved in the scandal. Higgins was still banned from professional competitions for six months. He was also fined PS75,000.
After his suspension, Higgins resumed his professional career in November 2010. He reached the final of the Ruhr Championship and the Shanghai Masters. He also reached the finals of two other championships during 2005/06. He was ranked fifth worldwide at the end of the season. Mark Williams, a Welshman, replaced him as World number 1 He was ranked fifth globally in 2013, but he fell to the 12th spot in the rankings the next year.