Born: 18 May 1975 Nationality: Scottish Seeded: 4 World ranking: 4 Career earnings: �3,196,602 Ranking points: 35,975 Crucible best: Winner (1998)

The Scot has shown outstanding consistency over the past five years.

The highlight of his career so far was winning the 1998 World Championship, one of 15 ranking titles he has collected to date.

The start of the 2001/2002 season was also particularly memorable as he became the first player in history to win the first three tournaments.

This year he again reached the final of the season's opening event, the Regal Masters, where he lost to Ronnie O'Sullivan.

And despite O'Sullivan accounting for him again in the Irish Masters, Higgins described the 10-9 final defeat as the best match he had ever played in.

He was in stunning form during the first two rounds of last year's World Championship, beating James Wattana and Graeme Dott convincingly, before losing to Matthew Stevens.