John Higgins refutes retirement rumour and hopes for Crucible return

John Higgins’ hopes of a fifth world title were ended for another year on Wednesday night when he lost 13-8 to Kyren Wilson in the quarter-finals of the ongoing 2024 World Snooker Championship.

Following his dramatic last 16 victory over Mark Allen earlier in the week, Higgins fell 4-0 and 9-4 behind to Wilson and was always playing catch up. He twice recovered to within one of his opponent at 5-4 and 9-8, but Wilson claimed the final four frames as he progressed to the one-table set-up.

Despite picking up £50,000 worth of ranking points, Higgins will fall outside of the world’s top 16 if David Gilbert defeats Wilson in the semi-finals. Should this happen, his 29-year unbroken streak within the elite will end.

It has been a frustrating few years for Higgins, who is without a ranking event title in over three years. He has appeared at the latter stages of multiple events during that period, but lost several close encounters, some of them having relinquished multiple-frame leads.

Speaking to BBC Sport after his exit, Higgins said: “Right now it's disappointment because I came here to win the tournament, and I've bowed out tamely in a way.

“But all credit, Kyren played fantastic. He had a couple of little wobbles, but he was far too powerful for me. He played great. It was a brilliant performance. He just powered through the winning line, I didn't really have a lot of resistance.

“I felt great, but in the second session I felt really tired. I'd love to come back here and play again."

There has been speculation surrounding the future of 48-year-old Higgins, who has been rumoured to be part of a potential breakaway snooker circuit next season where players are apparently paid appearances fees north of £300,000 before potting a ball or earning any prize money on top.

Speaking to the press at the Crucible last night, the 31-time ranking event winner said: “I’m committing to playing snooker now and I’m committing to trying to get back here. I don’t want that to be my final match at the Crucible. So, I’ll still be playing snooker. The sport will have to retire me before I retire myself, simple as that.”

Commenting specifically on the rumoured rival snooker tour, Higgins explained: “There’s a lot of hearsay and a lot of people talking telephone numbers and different things.

“Listen, I’m at a different stage of my career to someone like Judd Trump. He’ll be delighted to be trying to win these big events and different things, but if people are coming to offer certain players good amounts of money and the schedule could be a bit less hectic, you’d obviously have to listen to it and look at it.

“But right now, I don’t want this to be the last time I’m playing at the Crucible and if there had to be a choice between going to a tour where you’re not going to be playing at the Crucible again it would be such a difficult decision.”

In terms of the state of his own game, Higgins has been in an upbeat mood about it throughout his Crucible campaign: “Probably maybe ten days ago when I got the new cue, it gave me fresh impetus. The way I’ve come down and felt and enjoyed it. I’ve enjoyed the battles and enjoyed being out there. I feel a lot better.”