Fergal O'Brien (born 8 March 1972) is an Irish professional
snooker
Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets, one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side. First played by British Army officers stationed in Ind ...
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
2000–01 season. He has won one ranking title, the
1999 British Open, defeating
Anthony Hamilton 9–7 in the final. He has reached two other major finals, notably the
2001 Masters, where he lost 9–10 to
Paul Hunter.
O'Brien was relegated from the professional tour after losing to 15-year-old Welsh amateur
Liam Davies
Liam Davies (born 10 May 1986) is a Welsh rugby union footballer. A scrum-half, Davies began his professional rugby career with the Llanelli Scarlets, and made his league debut for the Scarlets while still in the region's development squad, pla ...
in the
2022 World Snooker Championship qualifying rounds. However, he regained his professional status immediately by coming through Event 1 of
Q School.
Career
O'Brien is, along with
Yan Bingtao, one of only two players to score a century in their first frame at the World Championships in the Crucible, which he achieved against
Alan McManus
Alan McManus (born 21 January 1971) is a Scottish retired professional snooker player and current commentator who works for Eurosport. A mainstay of the world's top sixteen during the 1990s and 2000s, he has won two ranking events, the 1994 Du ...
in 1994 (though he lost the match 10–7 and did not qualify again until 1998). His greatest achievement was winning the
British Open in 1999, beating
Anthony Hamilton 9–7 in the final. Hamilton opened with two centuries, but O'Brien won five frames on the final black to defeat the Nottingham man.
O'Brien also came close to winning the Masters title in 2001. After beating
Mark Williams,
Ken Doherty
Ken Doherty (born 17 September 1969) is an Irish professional snooker player, commentator and radio presenter.
As an amateur, Doherty won the Irish Amateur Championship twice, the World Under-21 Amateur Championship and the World Amateur C ...
and
Dave Harold
David Harold (born 9 December 1966) is an English former professional snooker player from Stoke-on-Trent. He was known by the nicknames of "the Hard Man" and "the Stoke Potter" (conflating his home city's pottery industry and his profession of ...
, he lost in the final to
Paul Hunter after leading 7–3. He has reached one further ranking final, and three semi-finals
O'Brien peaked at No. 9 in the rankings following his sole title, but nosedived after this. He narrowly retained his top 16 place for
the 2001/2002 season, but dropped out a year later – and then out of the top 32 a year later. Three further falls down the rankings left him at No. 45, before beginning to recover.
O'Brien's best run at the World Championship is the quarter-final and 2005 he became the first player to beat
John Parrott
John Stephen Parrott, (born 11 May 1964) is an English former professional snooker player and television personality. He was a familiar face on the professional snooker circuit during the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, and remained within ...
in a World Championship qualifier.
O'Brien started the
2007–08 campaign in
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
where he had beaten
Paul Davies
Paul Charles William Davies (born 22 April 1946) is an English physicist, writer and broadcaster, a professor in Arizona State University and Director of BEYOND: Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science. He is affiliated with the Institu ...
and
Barry Hawkins in qualifying rounds, however, he lost to
Steve Davis
Steve Davis (born 22 August 1957) is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a commentator, musician, DJ, and author. He is best known for dominating professional snooker during the 1980s, when he reached eight World S ...
in the first round. O'Brien also qualified for the
Grand Prix
Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour
Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to:
Arts and entertainment ...
but lost four of his group matches to finish 5th in his group ahead of only
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 an ...
.
After qualifying for the main draw of the
2007 Northern Ireland Trophy
The 2007 Northern Ireland Trophy was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 4–11 November 2007 at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Stephen Maguire won his first ranking tournament since 2004 by defe ...
by beating
Barry Pinches in a deciding frame, O'Brien went on to beat
Dave Harold
David Harold (born 9 December 1966) is an English former professional snooker player from Stoke-on-Trent. He was known by the nicknames of "the Hard Man" and "the Stoke Potter" (conflating his home city's pottery industry and his profession of ...
in the first round of the main draw. Victories over
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 ( ...
(in a decider),
Barry Hawkins and
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, ...
, before he reached the second ranking-event final of his career by beating
Mark Allen by 6 frames to 3. He lost the final to
Stephen Maguire
Stephen Maguire (born 13 March 1981) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He has won six major ranking tournaments, including the 2004 UK Championship, and has twice since reached the finals of that event. Maguire turned professional in ...
, 5–9. This run helped him return to the top 32 of the
Snooker world rankings 2007/2008, but the early part of the
2008–09 season proved disappointing, O'Brien not reaching the last sixteen of any of the first four tournaments.
As of the end of 2009 O'Brien had compiled 101 competitive century breaks in his career.
He qualified for the
Players Tour Championship 2011/2012 – Finals held in Galway but lost his Last 24 match 0–4 to Joe Perry.
On 12 April 2017, O’Brien qualified for the
2017 World Snooker Championship
The 2017 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2017 Betfred World Snooker Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 15 April to 1 May 2017 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 19t ...
after a record-breaking victory in the final qualifying round match against
David Gilbert. The final frame set the record for the longest frame of the modern era, lasting 123 minutes and 41 seconds.
Performance and rankings timeline
Career finals
Ranking finals: 2 (1 title)
Minor-ranking finals: 1
Non-ranking finals: 9 (2 titles)
Team finals: 1
References
External links
*
Fergal O'Brienat ''worldsnooker.com''
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Obrien, Fergal
1972 births
Irish snooker players
Bayside, Dublin
Living people