Igor Almeida Figueiredo (born October 11, 1977) is a Brazilian former professional

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...

player.

Career

Amateur career

Prior to entering the

PIOS The International Open Series (often referred to as Pontins International Open Series or PIOS for sponsorship purposes), was a series of snooker tournaments that ran from the 2001/02 season until the 2009/10 season. It was originally called the ...

tour in 2009, Figueiredo had only played on 10-foot tables in his home country. Despite this, his results were impressive, allowing him to finish 12th on the year-end ranking list. Figueiredo's most significant achievement however came at the 2009 IBSF World Championship, as he enjoyed a spectacular run to the final. Although he lost 10–8 to experienced

Alfie Burden Alfred Burden (born 14 December 1976) is an English professional snooker player from London. Career Burden originally had his eyes set on making a career as a professional footballer, but a badly broken leg curtailed this ambition. He spent a ...

, he was given a wild card by

WPBSA The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) is the governing body of professional snooker and English billiards based in Bristol, England. It owns and publishes the official rules of the two sports and engages in promotion ...

onto the main tour for 2010/2011.

2010–2012

In his first professional tournament, the minor-ranking PTC Event 1, Figueiredo won two matches to reach the last 32. He went further in the Event 3, losing a decider to

Barry Hawkins Barry Hawkins (born 23 April 1979) is an English professional snooker player from Ditton, Kent. He turned professional in 1996, but only rose to prominence in the 2004–05 snooker season, when he reached the last 16 of the 2004 UK Championsh ...

in the last 16. At the Shanghai Masters, Figueiredo beat

Jamie O'Neill Jamie O'Neill (born 1 January 1962) is an Irish author. His critically acclaimed novel, ''At Swim, Two Boys'' (2001), earned him the highest advance ever paid for an Irish novel and frequent praise as the natural successor to James Joyce, Flann ...

5–4 and David Gilbert 5–4 (despite being docked a frame for forgetting his cue). His run ended in the last 64 losing 5–1 to

Fergal O'Brien Fergal O'Brien (born 8 March 1972) is an Irish professional snooker player who plays on the main professional tour since 1991. Ranked within the world's top 64 players from 1994 to 2022, he has reached his highest position of 9th in the 2000� ...

. He also qualified for the televised stages of the World Open, losing 0–3 in the third round to Mark Williams. From this point however, Figueiredo started to struggle for form, losing all his opening matches at the major tournaments. Thanks to his strong performances at the PTC events he was able to retain his tour card for the 2011/12 season, despite finishing only 80th in the world rankings. Due to the lack of sponsorship Figueiredo only entered qualifying for one ranking event of the next season, the 2012 World Championship, where he won three matches, before losing 7–10 to

Joe Jogia Shailesh "Joe" Jogia (born 13 November 1975) is an English retired professional snooker player of Indian descent. Early life Born in Leicester, England in 1975, Jogia lived for a time in the Hertfordshire town of Letchworth, before returning ...

. He also participated in the inaugural Brazil Masters and defeated world number 17 Jamie Cope in the first round 4–2, but then lost by the same scoreline to

Graeme Dott Graeme Dott (born 12 May 1977) is a Scottish professional snooker player and snooker coach from Larkhall. He turned professional in 1994 and first entered the top 16 in 2001. He has won two ranking titles, the 2006 World Snooker Championship a ...

in the quarter-finals.

2013–2017

In 2013, Figueiredo returned to Main Tour after receiving the nomination from the Americas region, but the lack of sponsorship again forced him to sit out the whole season until the 2014 World Championship. He repeated his last 64 run of 2012 as he beat

Adam Duffy Adam Duffy (born 30 March 1989) is an English professional snooker player. Duffy qualified for the 2011–12 professional Main Tour as one of four semi-finalists from the third and final Q School event. Career Debut season As a new player on ...

10–4 in the first qualifying round, and followed it with 10–8 win against

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 ...

, but suffered a heavy 10–1 defeat to

Martin Gould Martin Gould (born 14 September 1981) is an English professional snooker player from Pinner in the London Borough of Harrow. He has appeared in four ranking finals and won one ranking title, the 2016 German Masters. Career Gould began his prof ...

in the penultimate round. Figueiredo also took part in the snooker tournament at the

2013 World Games The 2013 World Games ( es, Juegos Mundiales 2013), the ninth World Games, were an international multi-sport event held in the city of Cali, Colombia, from July 25 to August 4. Host city allocation history The 2013 World Games were initially all ...

, where he lost 3–2 to

Dechawat Poomjaeng Dechawat Poomjaeng ( ''Dechāwạt Phùmcæ̂ng'', born July 11, 1978) is a Thai professional snooker player. Career Early career He won the 2010 IBSF World Snooker Championship in Damascus, Syria, defeating India's Pankaj Advani 10–7 in the ...

in the bronze medal match. Figueiredo finally managed to gain sponsorship before the

2014 UK Championship The 2014 Coral UK Championship was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 25 November and 7 December 2014 at the Barbican Centre in York, England. It was the fifth ranking event of the 2014/2015 season. Neil Robertson ...

, and was able to enter all the remaining tournaments of the 2014/2015 season. At the UK Championship he defeated

6–4 to reach the last 64, where he lost 6–4 to

Anthony McGill Anthony McGill (born 5 February 1991) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He is a practice partner of retired snooker player Alan McManus. McGill turned professional in 2010, after finishing fourth in the 2009/2010 PIOS rankings. He wo ...

. He repeated this result at the

German Masters The German Masters is a professional ranking snooker tournament held at the Tempodrom in Berlin, Germany since 2011. The 2021 event was held at Milton Keynes in England because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Zhao Xintong is the reigning champion, h ...

qualifying by beating

Kurt Maflin Kurt Graham Maflin (born 8 August 1983) is an English-Norwegian former professional snooker player. A strong break-builder, Maflin has compiled more than 200 century breaks during his career and has made two 147 breaks in professional competitio ...

5–3, before

Stuart Bingham Stuart Bingham (born 21 May 1976) is an English professional snooker player who is a former world and Masters champion. Bingham won the 1996 World Amateur Championship but enjoyed little sustained success in the early part of his professional ...

defeated him 5–1. Figueiredo went on to lose his opening match at each of the next three ranking tournaments, but enjoyed another strong run at the

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

qualifiers. He started with a 10–3 win against veteran

Nigel Bond Nigel Bond (born 15 November 1965) is an English former professional snooker player. Bond competed on the main tour from 1989 to 2022, and was ranked within the world's top 16 players between 1992 and 1999, peaking at 5th for the 1996–97 s ...

, and followed that with a dramatic 10–9 victory over

Rod Lawler Rod Lawler (born 12 July 1971) is an English professional snooker player. He is noted for his slow playing style which gave rise to his nickname, "Rod the Plod". After turning professional in 1990, Lawler has reached one ranking tournament fin ...

, in a match where Figueiredo led 8–2 and 9–5, to reach the final round, where he lost 10–4 to

Robin Hull Robin Hull (born 16 August 1974) is a Finnish former professional snooker player. For some time, he was the sole Nordic countries, Nordic player on the game's Snooker world rankings, main tour. He is known as a solid -builder, having compiled ov ...

. Figueiredo was able to stay on the tour, as he was issued an International Development Main Tour Card as the Brazilian National Champion. He again had to sit out most of the season up to the 2016 World Championship where he was defeated 10–2 by

Matthew Selt Matthew Selt (born 7 March 1985) is an English professional snooker player originally from Romford, east London and now living in Chelmsford, Essex. He qualified for the professional tour by finishing seventh on the Pontin's International Open ...

in the first qualifying round. In the latter part of the 2016/2017 season Figueiredo had his best finishes on the tour to date. At the Welsh Open he secured wins over

and

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, ...

, before falling 4–1 to

Stuart Carrington Stuart Carrington (born 14 May 1990) is an English professional snooker player. He practises frequently with Steven Hallworth and Ian Glover in Grimsby. In May 2011, Carrington qualified for the 2011–12 professional Main Tour as one of fou ...

. He also reached the fourth round of the

Gibraltar Open The Gibraltar Open was a ranking snooker tournament. In 2015 it was part of the Players Tour Championship. The tournament started in 2015 and was staged at the Europa Point Sports Complex in Gibraltar. Robert Milkins Robert Milkins (born 6 Ma ...

by eliminating

Sydney Wilson Sydney Wilson (born 6 April 1990 in Southend-on-Sea, Essex) is an English former professional snooker player. Career Wilson began playing snooker at the age of three with his father teaching him the basics of the game. He later took lessons f ...

Fraser Patrick Fraser Patrick (born 8 November 1985) is a Scottish professional snooker player from Glasgow. Career Patrick started his professional career in 2002 by playing Challenge Tour, where he spent three seasons without success. In 2007 Patrick earn ...

and

Thor Chuan Leong Thor Chuan Leong (; born 24 March 1988) is a Malaysian former professional snooker player. He is commonly referred to as Rory Thor. Career Thor, based in Penang, Malaysia represented his country at the 2006 & 2010 Asian Games and in the ...

and lost 4–2 to

. He was relegated from the tour at the end of the year though due to being ranked 111th in the world.

Performance and rankings timeline

Career finals

Non-ranking finals: 1

Amateur finals: 3 (2 titles)

References

External links

Igor Figueiredo
at ''worldsnooker.com'' *
Profile on Global Snooker

Profile on IBSF
{{DEFAULTSORT:Figueiredo, Igor Brazilian snooker players Living people 1977 births Sportspeople from Rio de Janeiro (city) Competitors at the 2013 World Games