caption birth_place professional birth_date nickname image article_title name
john higgins at the 2014 german masters wishaw , scotland 1992 -- present 18 may 1975 the wizard of wishaw john -rrb- 2014-01-29 09.jpg higgins at snooker german masters -lrb- martin rulsch john higgins -lrb- snooker player -rrb-
 john higgins
john higgins -lrb- snooker player -rrb-

john higgins , -lrb- born 18 may 1975 -rrb- is a scottish professional snooker player .
since turning professional in 1992 , he has won 27 ranking titles , including four world championships and three uk championships , as well as two masters titles , making him one of the most successful players in the modern history of the sport .
in terms of world titles in the modern era , higgins is fifth behind stephen hendry -lrb- 7 -rrb- , steve davis -lrb- 6 -rrb- , ray reardon -lrb- 6 -rrb- and ronnie o'sullivan -lrb- 5 -rrb- .
in terms of ranking titles , higgins is joint third with o'sullivan -lrb- 27 -rrb- behind hendry -lrb- 36 -rrb- and davis -lrb- 28 -rrb- .
known as a prolific break-builder , he has compiled 578 century breaks in professional tournament play , placing him third behind o'sullivan and hendry .
he has also compiled 7 competitive maximum breaks , placing him third behind o'sullivan -lrb- 13 -rrb- and hendry -lrb- 11 -rrb- .
for 16 consecutive full seasons from 1996/1997 to 2011/2012 , higgins never fell below 6th in the world rankings , and was world number 1 on four occasions .
in 2010 , the `` news of the world '' tabloid newspaper carried out a sting operation in a hotel room in ukraine , which claimed to show higgins and his then-manager arranging to lose specific frames in future matches for money .
although an investigation cleared higgins of match-fixing allegations , it found that he had brought the sport into disrepute by failing to report , and giving the impression of agreeing with , an invitation to breach the sport 's betting rules .
the wpbsa banned higgins from professional competition for six months and fined him # 75,000 .
he returned to the tour midway through the 2010/2011 season .
after his return to snooker , higgins added a third uk championship title and claimed his fourth world title in 2011 .
he subsequently experienced a noted slump in form , and between 2012 and 2014 only won the 2012 shanghai masters .
he has spoken frequently in this period about his struggles with confidence and consistency .
however in 2015 higgins returned to winning ways capturing both the 2015 welsh open and 2015 australian goldfields open .
