Zak Surety (born 4 October 1991) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

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. He practises frequently with

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 ...

and Allan Taylor.

Career

As an amateur, Surety based in

Basildon Basildon ( ) is the largest town in the borough of Basildon, within the county of Essex, England. It has a population of 107,123. In 1931 the parish had a population of 1159. It lies east of Central London, south of the city of Chelmsford and ...

entered in

Players Tour Championship The Players Tour Championship was a series of snooker tournaments comprising some minor-ranking events played in Europe, and an Asian leg comprising some minor-ranking events in Asia. The series concluded with a Grand Final, where qualification ...

events from their establishment in 2010, with his best result as an amateur being a run to the last 32 stages of the 2012 UKPTC 3, with wins over

Jack Lisowski Jack Adam Lisowski (born 25 June 1991) is an English professional snooker player from Churchdown, Gloucestershire. He turned professional in 2010 by finishing first in the 2009/2010 PIOS rankings. A left-handed player, he is known for his atta ...

and

Oliver Lines Oliver Lines (born 16 June 1995) is an English professional snooker player who practices at Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds. He is the son of professional snooker player Peter Lines. Career Amateur Lines switched sports from football to snooke ...

in the main stages. Surety also entered Q School in 2011, 2012 and 2013 in the hope of winning a place on the main tour; however, he was unsuccessful, but came close in the second event in 2013, losing 4–1 to Ryan Clark in the final stage. His Q School performances however won him a top up place in four professional ranking events in 2013–14, but he failed to qualify for all four, winning only one match, 5–4 over Patrick Einsle in the

2013 Australian Goldfields Open The 2013 Australian Goldfields Open was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 8–14 July 2013 at the Bendigo Stadium in Bendigo, Australia. It was the second ranking event of the 2013/2014 season. Michael White atte ...

. In April 2014, Surety won a place on the professional

World Snooker Tour The World Snooker Tour (WST) is the main professional snooker tour, consisting of approximately 128 players competing on a circuit of up to 28 tournaments each season. The World Snooker Tour is administered by World Snooker Ltd, the commercial ar ...

for the 2014–15 and 2015–16 seasons after coming through the EBSA Amateur Cup play-offs with wins over Michael Tomlinson and

Michael Georgiou Michael Georgiou (born 18 January 1988) is a British-Cypriot former professional snooker player from Forest Hill. He is a practice partner of Igor Figueiredo and Hammad Miah, who practises at Whetstone Snooker Club. In 2018, Georgiou won his fi ...

, both 4–1.

Debut season

Surety lost his first five matches as a professional, before beating Mark King 6–3 to qualify for the

International Championship The International Championship is a professional ranking snooker tournament. The reigning champion is Judd Trump. History The event was introduced in the 2012/2013 season. It was named as the "first overseas 'major'", because the tournament ha ...

where David Gilbert defeated him 6–4 in the first round. He was knocked out in the first round of the

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 h ...

and Welsh Open by Michael Holt and

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 ...

respectively but qualified for the China Open by seeing off

Li Hang Li Hang is the name of: * Li Hang (footballer) (李行, born 1989), Chinese association footballer *Li Hang (snooker player) (李行, born 1990), Chinese snooker player See also * Li Gang (Song dynasty) (李綱, 1083–1140), regional commander se ...

5–4. Surety won three frames in a row to beat

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 Cha ...

5–4 to reach the last 32 of a ranking event for the first time and quickly raced into a 4–1 lead over

Robert Milkins Robert Milkins (born 6 March 1976) is an English professional snooker player. Considered one of the most naturally talented and quickest players in the game, Milkins has been a mainstay on the tour since regaining his tour card in 1998. Milkins ...

. Milkins cut the gap to 4–3, before Surety saw his best chance to win come in the next frame when he opened it with a 65 break, but he went on to lose it and the match in a deciding frame. Milkins apologised to Surety for his behaviour during the match afterwards. Surety's debut campaign ended with a 10–8 defeat to

Zhou Yuelong Zhou Yuelong (; born 24 January 1998) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He has been runner-up at three ranking events, the January 2020 European Masters, the 2020 Snooker Shoot Out, and the 2022 Northern Ireland Open. Career Between ...

in the first round of

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, ...

qualifying, which saw him placed 97th in the world rankings.

2015/2016 season

All players on the snooker tour receive entry to the first round of the

and Welsh Open, these were the only events Surety could reach in the 2015–16 season. He lost 6–4 to

in the first round of the UK and 4–1 to

in the first round of the Welsh. Surety dropped off the tour after being unable to break into the top 64 in the world rankings during his two-year stay and he entered Q School in an attempt to win his place back. In the second event he lost 4–1 in the final round to David John, but he would gain entry in to some events next season as a top-up player due to his high Q School Order of Merit ranking.

2016/2017 season

4–2 and 4–1 victories over

Kyren Wilson Kyren Wilson (; born 23 December 1991) is an English professional snooker player from Kettering and a five-time ranking event winner. He has been a runner-up at two of the three Triple Crown events, having reached the final at both the 2018 ...

and Antony Parsons saw Surety qualify for the European Masters and he was knocked out 4–1 by

Liang Wenbo Liang Wenbo (; born 25 March 1987) is a Chinese professional snooker player based at the Oracle Snooker Club, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England. Liang, who plays left-handed, has reached one Triple Crown final, made three Masters appearances, and ...

in the first round. He reached the second round of the Northern Ireland Open by beating Darryl Hill 4–3, but lost 4–2 to

Hossein Vafaei Hossein Vafaei ( fa, حسین وفایی ایوری; born 15 October 1994) is an Iranian professional snooker player. He is the first professional player from Iran. He won his first professional title at the 2022 Snooker Shoot Out, beating Mar ...

. Surety dropped off the tour at the end of the year after failing to progress through Q School.

Performance and rankings timeline

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Surety, Zak English snooker players Sportspeople from Basildon 1991 births Living people