The Snooker World Championships will kick off on April 16. Higgins believes this year's title will be won by a favourite – and the youngsters may have to wait.
The Scotsman, who had four laughs at the 17-day World Championship marathon battle, was close to increasing the number of titles at one point, but lost to Selby, Williams and Trump in the finals from 2017 to 2019.
In addition to these people, this year's favorites include O'Sullivan, who has just returned to world number one, and Robertson, who has performed best this season. Higgins, who is about to turn 47, believes that Yan Bingtao, Zhao Xintong, Karen Wilson and other "post-90s" and "post-00s" still have some way to go if they want to win the world championship.
Higgins himself needs to recover from five defeats in the six-finals this season to prepare for Crucible, especially after the Tour Championship was reversed 9-10 by Robertson.
'There are a lot of different titles this season – but I think the World Championships will belong to some top player because it's a long-term game.
"The World Championships are a marathon, it's enjoyable, but sometimes it's also overwhelming because it goes on and on."
"You have a lot of breaks early in the World Championships and you need to make good use of them. Once you reach the second half of the race, the World Championships will show its fangs. ”
"You play one and then rest, then go to the next, rest again, switch between different games and different stages, it's going to test your nerves very much. But Crucible is the best place for you to hit snooker. ”
"The long game is long, long, but once the game becomes evenly matched, there is little excitement and drama to match."
"In particular, the semi-finals seem to be prone to intense drama. You play four stages in three days and chase a ticket to the final. ”
"Of course, my goal is to lift the trophy. I may never win the World Championship again, so to be honest, I should be happy to have won four World Championships. ”
"If someone said at the beginning of my career, 'I'm going to win four World Championships,' I'd be happy to take it. However, as long as the club is in hand, you will always want to win the championship. That's the case with Jimmy White now, and so am I. ”
"To win the World Championships, you don't have to crush each other at every stage, but you need to stay stable and you can't drop too much."
"You need to be consistent in your game, you can't be thrown off, and then you can look forward to finding the best you can do when you're at your best."
Higgins, whose four World Championships came in 1998, 2007, 2009 and 2011, is expected to be the first to win in four different decades. The Scots admit that if they can do this, they can set a record that will stand the test of time.
"If it gets its way, this record will be very special and perhaps never be broken." I was able to hit that record because of the time I won the title for the first time, and because I played in snooker for a long time. But I don't think there will be any successors if this record is realized. ”
"No matter how experienced you are, you're always incredibly nervous at Sheffield. Even without an audience present, I would be nervous in Crucible. ”
"My main motivation for weight loss and fitness is to get good results in Crucible and try to get as many opportunities as possible."
"I don't want to go through it another year ago. Crucible is crowded, and the first few rounds have divided the venue in two. Then the glass barrier between the players' seats makes the environment narrower and it's not wonderful to sit there. ”
"Except for the big game finals, we can't play a lot of super long games. So you'd like to hope that the big game experience will give you an edge. ”
Higgins' first round was played at 21:30 Beijing time on April 19 and 17:00 On April 20.