Later, he was only one loss away from being bumped out of the Top 64, rallying to defeat Craig Butler 10–9 in a close 2003 World Championship qualifier. He ended up ranked no. 62 for the &lt;a href="Snooker%20world%20rankings%202003/2004"&gt;2003/2004 season&lt;/a&gt;. At this point, he had only qualified for the world championship once in six years, a 10–4 defeat to eventual winner Ronnie O'Sullivan in 2001. However, he returned to form after this. He reached the second round of the 2004 World Championship, beating Quinten Hann in a match memorable for a near-fight between the two players at the end, started by Hann in the middle of the match, when he said to Hicks: 'I've enjoyed the last three times I've beaten you'. At the end of the match, Hicks retorted that Hann was about to drop out of the Top 16 as a result of the loss. Hicks later admitted his delight at this. This marked the only time Hicks had won a at the Crucible since 1995. He next gave Ronnie O'Sullivan a challenge in the second round, before ultimately losing, 11–13.