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Gerard Greene
Gerard Eamonn Greene (born 12 November 1973 in Chatham, Kent) is a Northern Irish professional snooker player. He represents Northern Ireland in international events, as his parents are from Belfast. Greene has enjoyed moderate success in his career, reaching his highest ranking, 26th, for the 2004–05 season, and has reached one ranking final, at the 2014 Players Championship Grand Final, where he lost 4–0 to Barry Hawkins. Alongside this, Greene reached a ranking semi-final, at the 2007 Grand Prix, losing to the eventual champion Marco Fu, and five quarter-finals. Representing Northern Ireland with teammate Mark Allen, he reached the final of the 2011 World Cup, where they lost to China. Greene has qualified for the World Championship five times without winning a match at the Crucible Theatre, although he twice drew the defending champion – John Higgins in 1999, and Peter Ebdon in 2003. He was ranked within the world's top 64 players from 1997 until he fell off the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2016 Paul Hunter Classic
The 2016 Paul Hunter Classic was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 24 and 28 August 2016 at the Stadthalle in Fürth, Germany. It was the fourth ranking event of the 2016/2017 season. Named in honour of former professional snooker player Paul Hunter, this was the first time for which the event was a ranking tournament, having previously been a minor-ranking event of the Players Tour Championship. It was also the first of the two ranking events of the season, along with the Gibraltar Open (also a former European Tour event), which would be open to amateurs and would form the new Amateur Order of Merit. Ali Carter was the defending champion, but he was defeated 3–4 by Yan Bingtao in the last 32. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh made the 119th official maximum break in the second frame of his last 32 match against Kurt Maflin. It was Un-Nooh's first professional maximum break, having missed the final black on two occasions the previous season. Mark Selby won ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Higgins
John Higgins, (born 18 May 1975) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He has won 31 career ranking titles, placing him in third position on the all-time list of ranking event winners, behind Ronnie O'Sullivan (39) and Stephen Hendry (36). Since turning professional in 1992, he has won four World Championships, three UK Championships, and two Masters titles for a total of nine Triple Crown titles, putting him on a par with Mark Selby and behind only O'Sullivan (21), Hendry (18) and Steve Davis (15). A prolific break-builder, he has compiled over 900 century breaks and 12 maximum breaks in professional tournaments, in both cases second only to O'Sullivan (who has compiled over 1,100 centuries and 15 maximums). Higgins has achieved the world number 1 ranking position 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 specifi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dominic Dale
Dominic Dale (born Christopher Dale on 29 December 1971) is a Welsh professional snooker player and snooker commentator and presenter for the BBC and Eurosport. Career Dale was born in Coventry, England. He won the Welsh Amateur Championship, which allowed him to compete at the World Amateur Championship in Bangkok. Dale reached the final, but lost 9–11 against Noppadon Noppachorn. Dale turned professional for the 1992–93 season. He has won two ranking tournaments in his career, the first of which – the Grand Prix in 1997 – he won while ranked number 54 in the world, beating then world number 2 John Higgins 9–6 in the final. It took him a decade to repeat the achievement at the 2007 Shanghai Masters, where he defeated compatriot Ryan Day 10–6 in the final, from 2–6 behind. On his way to the Shanghai final he beat Rory McLeod, Ken Doherty, Adrian Gunnell, Dave Harold and Mark Selby. Both of his ranking victories were in the season-opening tournaments; he also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grand Prix (snooker)
The World Open is a professional ranking snooker tournament. Throughout its history, the tournament has undergone numerous revamps and name changes. It started out in 1982 as the ''Professional Players Tournament'', but for most of the 1980s and 1990s it was known as the ''Grand Prix''. It was renamed the '' LG Cup'' from 2001 to 2003 before reverting to the ''Grand Prix'' until 2010. Since then it has been known as the ''World Open''. During 2006 and 2007, it was played in a unique round-robin format, more similar to association football and rugby tournaments than the knock-out systems usually played in snooker. The knock-out format returned in 2008 with an FA Cup-style draw. The random draw was abandoned after the 2010 edition. Judd Trump is the defending champion. History The tournament was created in 1982 as the Professional Players Tournament by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, in order to provide another ranking event. Previously, only the World C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matthew Stevens
Matthew Stevens (born 11 September 1977) is a Welsh professional snooker player. He has won two of the game's Triple Crown events, the Masters in 2000 and the UK Championship in 2003. He has also been a two-time runner-up in the other triple crown event, the World Snooker Championship, in 2000 and 2005. Stevens reached a career high ranking of No. 4 for the 2005/2006 season. Stevens has compiled more than 300 century breaks during his career. Career Early career Stevens became a professional snooker player in 1994; in his second season, he won the Benson & Hedges Championship to qualify for the Masters, where he beat Terry Griffiths 5–3 but lost 5–6 to Alan McManus. He also showed potential the following season by beating Stephen Hendry 5–1 in the Grand Prix. In the 1997–98 season, he reached the semi-finals of both the Grand Prix and the UK Championship, achieving the highest break of the tournament at the latter. He also reached the quarter-finals on his debut at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe Swail
Joe Swail (born 29 August 1969) is a Northern Irish former professional snooker player from Belfast. He retired in May 2019 after being relegated from the tour. He has reached ten major ranking semi-finals, including the 2000 and 2001 World Championships but only one final. Swail is renowned for playing well at the Crucible Theatre, having reached the last 16 on four further occasions. He is also a former English amateur champion and Northern Ireland amateur runner-up, and has captained Northern Ireland internationally. He was Irish champion in 1992 and 2005. Career Swail has had a very mixed history in the rankings. He took just two seasons to reach the Top 32, and three to reach the top sixteen, but only remained there for one season,Profile on Global Snooker C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ronnie O'Sullivan
Ronald Antonio O'Sullivan (born 5 December 1975) is an English professional snooker player who is the current world champion and world number one. Widely recognised as one of the most talented and accomplished players in the sport's history, he has won the World Snooker Championship seven times, a modern-era record he holds jointly with Stephen Hendry. He has won a record seven Masters and a record seven UK Championship titles for a record total of 21 Triple Crown titles, the most achieved by any player. He holds the record for the most ranking titles, with 39, and has been world number one on seven season ending occasions. After an impressive amateur career, O'Sullivan turned professional in 1992, aged 16. He won his first professional ranking event at the 1993 UK Championship aged 17 years and 358 days, making him the youngest player to win a ranking title, a record he still holds. He is also the youngest player to win the Masters, which he first achieved in 1995, aged ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gary Ponting
Gary Ponting (born 17 January 1975) is an English former professional snooker player. Career Ponting was born in 1975, and turned professional in 1993. He reached the last 32 of the 1994 World Championship, losing 2–10 to Willie Thorne, and the same stage of the 1996 Thailand Open, where Peter Ebdon defeated him 5–0. Further progress to the last 16 of another four ranking events followed, notably at the 1998 UK Championship, where he made five century breaks including the highest of his career, a 138. Ponting reached a career-high ranking of 49th for the 1999/2000 season, retaining his top-64 place until the start of the 2002/2003 season. However, having suffered a loss of form, Ponting entered only one tournament after this, the 2003 World Championship, where he lost 1–10 in qualifying to India's Manan Chandra Manan Chandra (born 28 February 1981 in New Delhi) is an Indian amateur snooker and pool player. Chandra reached the semi-final at the 2006 IBSF ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andy Hicks
Andrew Hicks (born 10 August 1973) is an English professional snooker player. Nicknamed "The Cream of Devon", Hicks was a semi-finalist at both the World Snooker Championship and UK Championship in 1995, and the same stage at four other ranking tournaments. A Masters semi-finalist in 1996, he was ranked within the world's top 32 players between 1995 and 2000, and again from 2005 to 2007, but was relegated from the main tour in 2013. He regained a two-year tour card in 2019. Career Although a professional since 1991, Hicks first came to prominence in the 1995 World Championship, in which he reached the semi-finals, beating Steve Davis, Willie Thorne and Peter Ebdon along the way, but being blocked from the finals by Nigel Bond, 11–16. He has never reached a major final, but reached the semi-finals of the four BBC-screened events within 2 seasons – the 1994 Grand Prix, the 1995 UK Championship and the 1996 Masters (as a wild card). He spent most of the second half of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steve Davis
Steve Davis (born 22 August 1957) is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a Sports commentator, commentator, musician, DJ, and author. He is best known for dominating professional snooker during the 1980s, when he reached eight World Snooker Championship finals in nine years, won six world titles, and held the List of world number one snooker players, world number one ranking for seven consecutive seasons. He was runner-up to Dennis Taylor in one of snooker's most famous matches, the 1985 World Snooker Championship final, 1985 world final, whose dramatic black-ball conclusion attracted 18.5 million viewers, setting UK records for any broadcast after midnight and any broadcast on BBC Two that stand to this day. In addition to his six world titles, Davis won the UK Championship six times and the Masters (snooker), Masters three times for a total of 15 Triple Crown (snooker), Triple Crown titles, placing him third on the all-time list behind Ronnie O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ian Brumby
Ian Brumby (born 17 September 1964) is an English former professional snooker player. Career Born on 17 September 1964, Brumby turned professional in 1989. His first season brought a run to the last 32 at the 1990 Classic, where he defeated Eric Lawlor 5–4, John Spencer 5–1 and benefited from the withdrawal of his last-64 opponent Jimmy White. His last-32 match against Silvino Francisco was a one-sided affair; Francisco beat Brumby 5–0. In qualifying for that year's World Championship, Brumby defeated Bert Demarco and Fred Davis, both 10–6, but was then eliminated by Paddy Browne by the same scoreline. The following season was barren, Brumby's only notable performance coming in the 1990 International One-Frame Shoot-out, where he beat Matt Gibson, Ian Black, Steve Meakin and Neal Foulds before losing his quarter-final 'match' 29–69 to Jason Whittaker. Further poor form riddled the early 1990s, but Brumby recorded his first round-of-32 finish at a ranking event ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
UK Championship
The UK Championship is a professional ranking snooker tournament. It is one of snooker's prestigious Triple Crown events, along with the World Championship and the Masters. It is usually held at the Barbican Centre, York. Ronnie O'Sullivan has won the tournament a record seven times, followed by Steve Davis with six titles and Stephen Hendry with five. Mark Allen is the reigning champion, winning his first title in 2022. History The UK Championship was first held in 1977 in Tower Circus, Blackpool as the United Kingdom Professional Snooker Championship, an event open only to British residents and passport holders. Patsy Fagan won the inaugural tournament by defeating Doug Mountjoy by 12 frames to 9 in the final and won the first prize of £2000. The following year the event moved to the Guild Hall, Preston, where it remained until 1997. The rules were changed in 1984 when the tournament was granted ranking status and all professionals were allowed to enter. Since then, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
_2014-01-29_09.jpg "Click for more on -> John Higgins")
