Liam Highfield has told bet365 that he still harbours ambitions of capturing a piece of snooker silverware and believes his newfound association with former top 16 star Anthony Hamilton will significantly aid his quest.
The Stoke star has called upon the wily veteran, who famously won the German Masters a decade ago, to help take his game to the next level in a bid to help improve his chances of securing a first professional ranking title.
Highfield was regarded as one of the sport's hottest prospects when he broke onto the tour as a teenager in 2010, but whilst a plethora of his former amateur rivals, including Judd Trump, Kyren Wilson and Jack Lisowski, have gone on to cement themselves as household snooker names, his own career hasn't yet hit the same heights.
He is however now taking significant steps to try and address that, making significant alterations to his lifestyle away from the game as well as joining forces with Hamilton, who was renowned for his technical qualities, composure and resilience.
"I've played against Ant on numerous occasions in the past and us working together was actually something I first softly hinted to him about around five years ago," Highfield revealed to bet365 in the build-up to the World Snooker Championship qualifiers.
"He said that he would do it when he retired, but there was part of me a year or so back that thought he may outlast me on the tour.
He [Anthony Hamilton] has always been somebody I have admired and somebody I have always been interested in working with and learning from, so as soon as he announced his retirement I was the first one on the phone congratulating him on a wonderful career and asking him if he would be willing to come and help me.
- Liam Highfield (Indian Open & Snooker Shoot Out Quarter-Finalist)
"His attention to detail goes far beyond pretty much everyone in the game, even those at the very top of the rankings right now.
"I think it's fair to say that Anthony managed to squeeze everything out of his career, even with back issues and eye issues he was still competing and still beating big name opponents, right up until he called time on his playing career.
"He knows every single detail about the game - he is so knowledgeable and that can only help me. I have plenty left in the tank and my burning desire is to win a title, and I believe working with Ant will give me a greater chance of achieving that."
Hamilton made the decision to call time upon his superb playing career 12 months ago after failing in his quest to secure a spot at the 2025 World Snooker Championship.
Despite retaining hold of his tour card, the 54-year-old opted to hand it back and instead pursue a new career in a coaching capacity, bringing an end to a stellar three-decade long uninterrupted spell on tour.
The 54-year-old, affectionately known as the 'Sheriff of Pottingham', is now helping hone the skills of Oliver Lines, Louis Heathcote and Ashley Hugill, in additional to Highfield, with all four players taking undoubted strides forward since acquainting themselves with him.
"I'm sure all four of us would say the same thing, that he is helping us," Highfield added.
"I can only really speak about the improvements I am making but they are clear and obvious to me.
"Maybe when people look at my results this year and see them at face value, they may question that, but I can see and feel the difference in my own game after six months or so of working together.
"It's all about finding the right balance now, which I am really starting to do, because initially I probably went from one extreme to the other, from a really attacking style to a far more tactical way of playing.
"Naturally when you are learning new things and altering the way you play, it's easy to sway too far the way you are trying to adapt too, and I know that I went too far earlier in the season which hindered me.
"But we have rectified that with a lot of good work behind the scenes, and I have managed to reign it in a little back and shift back towards my natural front-footed style of play whilst, of course, incorporating the new stuff I have been working on, which bodes well for the weeks and months ahead."
Highfield's quest to reach the Crucible for a fourth time gets underway on Wednesday when he takes on Oliver Brown in the first World Snooker Championship qualifying round.
