Luca Brecel

Brecel at the 2011 Paul Hunter Classic
Born	(1995-03-08) 8 March 1995 (age 17) Dilsen-Stokkem
Sport country	Belgium
Nickname	Belgian Bullet[1]
Professional	2011–
Highest ranking	79 (May 2012)[2]
Current ranking	79
Career winnings	£17,900[3]
Highest break	116 (2012 World Snooker Championship)
Century breaks	6 [4]
Best ranking finish	Last 32 (2012 World Snooker Championship)

Luca Brecel (born 8 March 1995 in Dilsen-Stokkem) is a professional Belgian snooker player, widely considered one of the most promising upcoming snooker talents.^[5]

Amateur career[link]

In April 2009, he became the youngest European under-19 champion at 14 years of age.^[6]

In May 2009, in the Grand Final of the World Series of Snooker in Portugal, he beat Jimmy White 4–3 and former World Champion Ken Doherty 5–3 on his way to the quarter-finals, where he lost 4–5 to Graeme Dott.^[7] In August 2009, he beat Joe Perry, the then world number 12, at the Paul Hunter Classic.^[8] On 8 January 2010, Brecel defeated former world champion Stephen Hendry 4–1 at an exhibition game in Bruges, Belgium.^[9]

Luca Brecel became the Belgian senior snooker champion on 24 May 2010, beating Bjorn Haneveer 7–4 in the final. He also had the highest break of the tournament with a 136.^[10]

Brecel was one of the eight players in the first ever Power Snooker event, held on 30 October 2010 at the indigO2, next to former reigning world champion Neil Robertson, Ding Junhui, Mark Selby, Ali Carter, Shaun Murphy, Jimmy White and Ronnie O'Sullivan. Brecel was defeated by O'Sullivan in the first round.^[11]

On 19 December 2010, Brecel was named the Young Belgian Sportsman of the year.^[12]

Brecel received a wild card for the Main Tour of the professional 2011/2012 season on 5 May 2011.^[13]

Professional career[link]

2011/2012 season[link]

Brecel became a professional snooker player in June 2011, beating Anthony Hamilton in his first official professional match. By August 2011, he was ranked 87 on the Snooker world rankings, as second Belgian after Bjorn Haneveer, then ranked 65. In January 2012, he made his first 147 break in an amateur tournament.^[14]

Brecel played in all 12 of the Players Tour Championship events throughout the season, with his best finishes coming in Event 2, Event 8 and Event 9, where he reached the last 32 each time. He finished 69th on the Order of Merit.^[15][16]

Brecel became the youngest ever player to qualify for the World Snooker Championship in 2012, after defeating Ian McCulloch, Barry Pinches, Michael Holt and Mark King. In doing so he broke the record of Stephen Hendry from 1986, as he was almost 2 months older than Brecel. He also became one of five players to qualify for the tournament under 18 years of age and played in his first ranking event main draw,^[17] but lost 5–10 in the first round against Stephen Maguire despite making a century break and a 96 break during the match.^[18]

Although finishing the season outside the top 64 who automatically retain their places on the snooker tour, Brecel received a two-year wildcard, along with Tony Drago. World Snooker chairman, Barry Hearn said the decision was made as it would be a "loss to the sport" if Brecel did not feature.^[19]

Performance and rankings timeline[link]

1. ^ New players on the Main Tour don't have a ranking.

Tournament wins[link]

Amateur[link]

• Belgian Under 16 Championship – 2007, 2008, 2009
• Belgium Ranking Events
  • St.Martinus Gent – 2007
  • Happy Snooker Hasselt – 2009
  • Zele – 2010
  • Peer – 2011
• Malta Under 16 Open – 2007
• Flemish Under 16 Championship – 2008
• Belgian Teams Championship – 2008
• Belgian Open Under 21 – 2008
• Belgian Under 21 Championship – 2008, 2009
• European Under-19 Championship – 2009
• International Open under 21 – 2009
• Belgian Senior Championship – 2010
• European Snooker Championship – 2010

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• English Website
• Luca Brecel at CueTracker.net: Snooker Results and Statistic Database
• Global Snooker Player Profile

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Lee Page

Born	(1987-11-06) November 6, 1987 (age 24) Redditch, England
Sport country	England
Professional	2006–
Highest break	147 (Under 16's Championship)

Lee Page (born November 6, 1987) is a professional Snooker player from Kidderminster. He first entered the professional tour for the 2006/07 season, but was unable to retain his place for the following season's tour. He has qualified the second time for 2009/10 season

External links[link]

• Lee Page at CueTracker.net: Snooker Results and Statistic Database
• Player profile on World Snooker
• Player profile on Pro Snooker Blog
• Player profile on Global Snooker

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Stephen Maguire

Born	(1981-03-13) 13 March 1981 (age 31) Glasgow, Scotland
Sport country	Scotland
Nickname	On-Fire Livewire Maggi
Professional	1998–
Highest ranking	2 (2 years)
Current ranking	4
Career winnings	UK£818,450[1]
Highest break	147 (2x)
Century breaks	200
Tournament wins
Ranking	4
Minor-ranking	1
Non-ranking	1
www.stephenmaguire147.co.uk

Stephen Maguire (born 13 March 1981 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a Scottish professional snooker player.

Career[link]

Early career[link]

Maguire almost qualified for the 2000 World Championships, leading eventual semi-finalist Joe Swail 9–6 in the final qualifying round before losing 9–10,^[2] but first served notice of his true potential by knocking out Stephen Lee in the first round of the UK Championship in 2002.

Maguire was the surprise winner of the 2004 European Open. Ranked 41 in the world at the time, he beat well established top-16 player Jimmy White 9–3 in the final. It was in that same season that he qualified for the World Championship for the first time, losing 6–10 in the first round to Ronnie O'Sullivan, but O'Sullivan admitted to being impressed by Maguire's performance and tipped him to be a future World Champion.^[3]

2004/2005[link]

The start of the 2004/2005 season saw Maguire establish himself as one of the game's brightest talents. He performed well at the season opening Grand Prix, reaching the quarter-finals, and things improved further at the British Open in Brighton. Maguire defeated Ronnie O'Sullivan 6–1 in the semi-finals, leading O'Sullivan to claim that 'he had never seen anything like that on a snooker table before' and also rated Maguire as 'probably the best player in the world at the moment'.^[4] Although Maguire lost the final 6–9 to his compatriot John Higgins, he more than made up for it at the next event, the UK Championship, snooker's second biggest tournament.

The Scotsman played some superb snooker on the way to the final, beating the likes of Mark King, Mark Davis, Stephen Lee, Ronnie O'Sullivan and Steve Davis. Davis described Maguire as 'inspired',^[5] while O'Sullivan was again rich in his praise for the youngster, claiming 'he could rule the game for the next ten years'.^[6] In the final, Maguire blazed past David Gray with an emphatic 10–1 win.^[7]

The rest of the season was an anti-climax of sorts however. He lost against defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan 9–10 in their World Championship first-round match, despite having led 9–7, but he still moved up to #3 in the world rankings.

2006–2009[link]

In the 2005/2006 season, he only reached one quarter-final, showing evidence of a loss in form, especially when losing 4–13 to qualifier Marco Fu in the second round of the 2006 World Championships.

In 2007, he recorded his best run at the World Championship reaching the semi-final, where he lost 15–17 to eventual champion John Higgins having led 14–10.

Maguire again beat Shaun Murphy in the 2007 UK Championship semi-final 9–5 only to lose 2–10 against Ronnie O'Sullivan in the final. In the 2008 China Open, he compiled a 147 in narrowly beating his friend Ryan Day 6–5 in the semi-finals, before edging out Shaun Murphy once again in the final by 10 frames to 9.

Despite losing at the quarter-final stage of the 2008 World Championship in another final frame decider (12–13) to Joe Perry, he became the world number 2 for the next season, his highest ever ranking having severed most of his ties the previous summer, Maguire formally left management company 110sport in the summer of 2008, but returned in October.^[8]

The 2008/2009 season he failed to win a ranking event, but did enough to maintain his number two ranking at the end of the season by consistently reaching the later stages of tournaments. His best runs were semi-final appearances in the Shanghai Masters and UK Championship. In the Shanghai Masters he lost narrowly 5–6 against Ronnie O'Sullivan and in the UK Championship 4–9 against Shaun Murphy.

2009/2010[link]

Maguire began the 2009/2010 season by winning the first event of the Pro Challenge Series beating Alan McManus 5–2 in the final.

Maguire was formally detained by Strathclyde Police on 27 August 2009, following allegations that he and countryman Jamie Burnett had colluded to produce a 9–3 victory for Maguire in their clash in the 2008 UK Championship.^[9]

Maguire had to withdraw from the first ranking event, the Shanghai Masters, due to shoulder injury. In the Grand Prix he won his first ranking match of the season, defeating Nigel Bond 5–3, before losing his next match 1–5 against Ding Junhui.

At the UK Championship he reached the semi-finals by defeating Michael Holt 9–6 in the first round, Stuart Bingham 9–3 in the second round and Peter Lines 9–3 in the quarter-final, before he lost again against Ding Junhui 5–9.

Maguire's first event of 2010 was the Masters. He beat Mark King 6–3 in the first round and Ryan Day 6–1 in the quarter-finals, but lost 3–6 in the semi-finals against Mark Selby.

Maguire then reached the semifinals of the Welsh Open. He defeated Dominic Dale 5–4 in the first round, Barry Hawkins 5–1 in the second round and Mark Williams 5–1 in the quarter-finals, but he lost 3–6 against defending champion Ali Carter.

He won his opening matches at the last two ranking tournament, the China Open and World Championship, but lost in the second round against Mark Allen 3–5 and Graeme Dott 6–13 respectively.

2010/2011[link]

Maguire had a relatively quiet season, but he did reach the final of the Welsh Open where he led John Higgins 5–2 before being defeated 9–6. However, he followed this up by losing in the first round of the World Championship for the first time since 2005, as he was defeated by qualifier Barry Hawkins 10–9.

2011/2012[link]

Maguire's season started poorly with first round exits at the opening two ranking events of the year, the Australian Goldfields Open and the Shanghai Masters.^[10][11] At the UK Championships he defeated Stephen Hendry and John Higgins to set up a quarter-final with world number seven Judd Trump, which Maguire lost 6–3.^[12] He made three century breaks during the tournament, including a 144, which was the highest of the event.^[13]

He won his first tournament carrying ranking points for almost four years in January 2012 at PTC Event 12 in Germany. He beat Joe Perry 4–2 in the final and stated afterwards that he hadn't practiced at all over the Christmas period.^[14] The result meant that he finished eighth in the Order of Merit and therefore qualified for the 2012 Finals.^[15] He couldn't carry his form into the following weeks Masters tournament however, as he exited the event in the first round for the second successive year following a 4–6 defeat to Mark Williams.^[16] Maguire reached the final in the German Masters, whitewashing John Higgins and Shaun Murphy enroute. In the final he lost 7–9 against Ronnie O'Sullivan.^[17] At the aforementioned PTC Finals Maguire was whitewashed in the last 4 by Neil Robertson 0–4.^[18]

A quarter-final run in the Welsh Open and a first round defeat in the World Open followed, before Maguire competed in the China Open.^[18] There he made it to his second major final in as many months courtesy of wins over the likes of O'Sullivan and Stephen Lee. He played a rejuvenated Peter Ebdon in the final and from 1–5 behind, won seven of the next ten frames to level the match at 8–8. The match went into a decider which Ebdon won to end the eight hour contest.^[19]

Maguire therefore went into the World Championship in very good form and his passage into the semi-finals was largely trouble free as he beat seventeen year old Luca Brecel 10–5 in the first round, Joe Perry 13–7 in the second and Stephen Hendry 13–2 in the quarter-finals, with a session to spare.^[20] Maguire would unwittingly become Hendry's last ever opponent as the seven-time winner of the event retired immediately after the match.^[21] Maguire lost his semi-final 12–17 to Ali Carter,^[22] and finished the season ranked world number 4, meaning he had climbed four places during the year.^[23]

Rivalry[link]

Maguire has a rivalry with Shaun Murphy. In a 2004 Grand Prix match, Murphy was involved in having one of Maguire's frames forfeited. As the match was about to begin, Maguire realised he had forgotten to bring his chalk with him. He asked referee Johan Oomen for permission to leave the arena.^[24] While he was away, Murphy spoke to the referee; the tournament director Mike Ganley was summoned and he docked Maguire a frame for not being ready to start at the scheduled time.^[25] Maguire later won the match 5–2. Later that year, whilst playing in the final of the UK Championships, David Gray forgot his chalk. However, Maguire let him get it without a frame being docked. After beating Murphy in the 2007 Welsh Open, Maguire said, 'That put the icing on the cake, but we've always had a rivalry. I dislike him and I think he dislikes me. I try hard to beat everyone, but it would have hurt more if I'd lost to him'.^[25] After the previously mentioned 2006 World Championship match with Marco Fu, Maguire said, 'I don't want to be a fat world champion', a dig at Murphy.^[26]

Personal life[link]

Stephen has a son Finn and a daughter Faith with his long-term fiancee Sharon.^[27]

He does not have to wear a bow tie in professional snooker matches due to medical problems, for which he has a doctor's letter.^[28]

Performance and rankings timeline[link]

1. ^ New players on the Main Tour don't have a ranking.
2. ^ The event run under different name as LG Cup (2001/2002-2003/2004) and Grand Prix (1998/1999-2000/2001 and 2004/2005-2009/2010
3. ^ The event run under different name as China International (1998/1999)
4. ^ The event run under different name as Players Championship (2003/2004)
5. ^ The event ran under the names European Open (2001/2002–2003/2004) and Irish Open (1998/1999)

Career finals[link]

Ranking event finals: 9 (4 titles, 5 runner-ups)[link]

Legend World Championship (0–0) UK Championship (1–1) Other (3–4) Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score Winner 1. 2004 European Open White, JimmyJimmy White 9–3 Runner-up 1. 2004 British Open Higgins, JohnJohn Higgins 6–9 Winner 2. 2004 UK Championship Gray, DavidDavid Gray 10–1 Winner 3. 2007 Northern Ireland Trophy O'Brien, FergalFergal O'Brien 9–5 Runner-up 2. 2007 UK Championship O'Sullivan, RonnieRonnie O'Sullivan 2–10 Winner 4. 2008 China Open Murphy, ShaunShaun Murphy 10–9 Runner-up 3. 2011 Welsh Open Higgins, JohnJohn Higgins 6–9 Runner-up 4. 2012 German Masters O'Sullivan, RonnieRonnie O'Sullivan 7–9 Runner-up 5. 2012 China Open Ebdon, PeterPeter Ebdon 9–10 Minor-ranking tournaments[link] PTC Event 12 - FFB Snooker Open, 2012[14] Non-ranking tournaments[link] Pro Challenge Series – Event 1, 2009 Amateur tournaments[link] IBSF World Amateur Championship, 2000 References[link] ^ Yahoo! Sport. 2009. Stephen Maguire. [Online] Eurosport UK (Updated 2010) Available at: http://uk.yahoo.eurosport.com/snooker/person_prs28965.shtml [Accessed 19 February 2010]. ^ Sporting Life: Joe Swail profile ^ BBC Sport: O'Sullivan downs Maguire ^ BBC Sport: O'Sullivan crashes out to Maguire ^ The Press: Davis hails new star ^ Sporting Life: Stephen Maguire ^ BBC Sport: Rampant Maguire wraps up UK title ^ 110sport: "Maguire Signs Exciting New Three-year 110sport Deal" ^ World Snooker News: Statement ^ "Ken Doherty beats Stephen Maguire in Australian Open". BBC Sport. 20 July 2011. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/snooker/14218518.stm. Retrieved 8 December 2011.  ^ "Shanghai Masters First Round Results". http://www.masterssnooker.com/shanghai-masters-first-round-results-2011/2011/09/06/. Retrieved 8 December 2011.  ^ "Trump sinks Maguire to make semi-final". BBC News. 8 December 2011. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/snooker/16097110.stm. Retrieved 8 December 2011.  ^ "UK Championship century breaks". Eurosport. http://asia.eurosport.com/snooker/uk-century-breaks_sto3055341/story.shtml. Retrieved 8 December 2011.  ^ a b "Maguire Breaks Trophy Drought". WPBSA. 8 January 2012. http://www.worldsnooker.com/page/NewsArticles/0,,13165~2324947,00.html. Retrieved 9 January 2012.  ^ "PTC Order of Merit after PTC12". worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. http://www.worldsnooker.com/staticFiles/ae/98/0,,13165~170158,00.pdf. Retrieved 29 December 2011.  ^ "Masters snooker: Mark Williams beats Stephen Maguire in opener". BBC Sport. 15 January 2012. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/snooker/16569738.stm. Retrieved 15 January 2012.  ^ "PartyPoker.net German Masters (2012)". Snooker.org. http://snooker.org/res/index.asp?event=99. Retrieved 3 May 2012.  ^ a b "Stephen Maguire 2011/2012". Snooker.org. http://snooker.org/res/index.asp?player=2&season=2011. Retrieved 3 May 2012.  ^ "Ebdon edges Maguire in epic final". Eurosport. 1 April 2012. http://au.eurosport.com/snooker/ebdon-edges-maguire_sto3218584/story.shtml. Retrieved 3 May 2012.  ^ "Betfred.com World Championship". Snooker.org. http://snooker.org/res/index.asp?event=102. Retrieved 3 May 2012.  ^ "Stephen Hendry retires after World Snooker Championship defeat". BBC Sport. 1 May 2012. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/snooker/17917326. Retrieved 3 May 2012.  ^ "World Snooker Championship 2012: Ali Carter beats Maguire". BBC Sport. 5 May 2012. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/snooker/17941717. Retrieved 8 May 2012.  ^ "Official World Ranking List for the 2012/2013 Season". http://www.worldsnooker.com/staticFiles/1d/b0/0,,13165~176157,00.pdf. Retrieved 23 May 2012.  ^ BBC Sport: Williams crashes out ^ a b Higginson Sporting Life: Revelling in Spotlight ^ BBC Sport: "Quotes from The Crucible" ^ "Stephen Maguire". WorldSnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. 2007–2010 [copyright date]. "Players Alphabetical" section. http://www.worldsnooker.com/page/PlayersAlphabeticalArticle/0,,13165~2234681,00.html.  Official WPBSA player profile. ^ "Maguire aiming to retain NI title" BBC Sport, 20 August 2008. Retrieved on 19 December 2008. External links[link] "Stephen Maguire". WorldSnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. 2007–2010 [copyright date]. "Players Alphabetical" section. http://www.worldsnooker.com/page/PlayersAlphabeticalArticle/0,,13165~2234681,00.html.  Official WPBSA player profile. Official website Stephen Maguire at CueTracker.net: Snooker Results and Statistic Database Profile on Global Snooker Profile on Pro Snooker Blog v t e World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association top sixteen snooker players after the 2012 World Championship     Mark Selby Judd Trump Mark Williams Stephen Maguire John Higgins Shaun Murphy Neil Robertson Stephen Lee Ronnie O'Sullivan Matthew Stevens Ding Junhui Mark Allen Graeme Dott Martin Gould Ricky Walden Stuart Bingham Persondata Name Maguire, Stephen Alternative names Short description snooker player Date of birth 13 March 1981 Place of birth Glasgow, Scotland Date of death Place of death

This article's lead section may not adequately summarize its contents. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of the article's key points. (January 2010)

Peter Ebdon

Peter Ebdon at the 2010 Brugge Open
Born	(1970-08-27) 27 August 1970 (age 41) Islington, London, England
Sport country	England
Nickname	Ebbo The Ebdonator The Force Psycho
Professional	1991–
Highest ranking	3 (1996/97 & 2002/03)
Current ranking	20
Career winnings	UK£2,826,270[1]
Highest break	147 (twice)
Century breaks	300[2] (April 2012)
Tournament wins
Ranking	9
Non-ranking	3
World Champion	2002

Peter Ebdon (born 27 August 1970 in Islington, London, England) is an English professional snooker player and former world and UK champion, renowned for his remarkably focused, determined style of play.

Career[link]

Early years[link]

Ebdon turned professional in 1991, and, sporting a ponytail, made an impact by beating Steve Davis 10–4 in the first round of the 1992 World Championship; he went on to reach the quarter-finals of the event, losing 13–7 to a resurgent Terry Griffiths. However, it was a run which earned him the WPBSA Young Player of the Year award as a result. His first ranking title was the 1993 Grand Prix.^[3] He climbed the rankings rapidly to reach a career-highest position of number three in 1996; he again reached world number three status at the close of the 2002 season.

2002–2010[link]

Perhaps Ebdon's greatest achievement, thus far, was his 18–17 defeat of Stephen Hendry in the 2002 World Championship final,^[4] having started the tournament at odds of 33–1.^[3] He had previously reached the final of the tournament in 1996, which he lost 18–12 to Hendry, and was also runner-up at the 2006 event to Graeme Dott in which, at 15–7 down coming into the final session, Ebdon won six successive frames before Dott prevailed 18–14. In the semi-final before the final he led Marco Fu 15–9 before being pegged back to 16–16 before Ebdon took the decider, at the end of which he shed tears of relief.

Ebdon is a remarkably focused and determined player. Until recently, his shot times had slowed down considerably; this attracted some criticism – particularly, in his match against Ronnie O'Sullivan in the 2005 World Championship. Resuming at 10–6 down, Ebdon won the first six frames of the evening session, at one stage taking three minutes over a shot, and five minutes to compile a break of 12. Ebdon nevertheless won the match 13–11.^[5] Such performances, though lacking fluency, often appear to break his opponent mentally. Ebdon stated after his victory over O'Sullivan, "When I'm trying my hardest I seem to go slow. I don't do it intentionally". When The Times described his slow play as 'cheating', he attempted to sue them for libel and lost.^[6]

Among Ebdon's other career highlights was winning the UK Championship in 2006, beating Stephen Hendry 10–6 in the final ^[7] – in doing so, becoming only the ninth player to have won both the World and UK Championship. Ebdon's shot times were markedly quicker, and this fluency served him well in defeating the defending champion Ding Junhui and John Higgins en route to the final, and compiling eight century-breaks over the course of the tournament. However, he failed to reach a ranking quarter-final in 2007. His poor form continued into 2008; in the Northern Ireland Trophy he lost 0–5 to Liang Wenbo with a highest break of 32, a result which lead to an investigation of suspicious betting patterns by the Gambling Commission. The WPBSA, of which Ebdon is a board member, has yet to announce an investigation of its own.^[8][9]

In 2009, Ebdon beat John Higgins 10–8 to win the China Open. However, in the subsequent World Championship, Ebdon lost 10–5 to Nigel Bond in the first round. A year later, after a disappointing season, Ebdon once again lost 10–5 in the World Championship, this time to Graeme Dott. This result meant Ebdon dropped out of the top 16 in the world rankings after an uninterrupted 16-year stay.^[10]

2010/2011[link]

At the start of the season Ebdon issued a statement announcing that he would not be able to play to the best of his ability in the last round of the Shanghai Masters qualifiers.^[11] He reached the second round of the tournament though by winning his qualifying match by 5–1 against Michael White, and then his last 32 match against Neil Robertson 5–4 before losing against Mark King 3–5. He enjoyed a good return of form in the World Open, where he beat Steve Davis 3–1, Fergal O'Brien 3–2, Liu Song 3–2, and Martin Gould 3-1 before losing against Ronnie O'Sullivan 1–3. This was his first semi-final since the 2009 China Open and saw him retake a place in the top 16. He also reached the quarter-finals of the China Open and the last 16 of the German Masters and Welsh Open.^[12] However, he was knocked out in the first round of both the UK Championship and World Championship, but was still ranked as number 13 at the end of the season.^[13]

2011/2012[link]

Ebdon lost in the first round of the first two ranking events of the year, the Australian Goldfields Open and the Shanghai Masters, to make a low key start to the season and as a result drop out of the top 16 at the first cut-off in October, meaning he now had to win a qualifying match to reach the main draw of the ranking events.^[14] He lost his first qualifying match in an attempt to reach the UK Championship as he was defeated 3–6 by Robert Milkins. The result meant that Ebdon would not play in the tournament since his first year as a professional in 1991.^[15] He also missed the Masters for the first time since 1992 due to being ranked outside of the top 16, but did manage to qualify for the German Masters and the Welsh Open, losing in the first round upon reaching the venue in both events.^[12]

He had a disastrous run of form in the PTC series, as he played in all 12 events but could only win 4 matches all season. He finished 98th in the Order of Merit and these results contributed to Ebdon being ranked world number 28 in March.^[16][17]

Ebdon put his indifferent form behind him at the China Open where he won the ninth ranking event title of his career. He whitewashed Liang Wenbo 5–0 to qualify and once in China beat Matthew Stevens 5–3 to set up a last 16 meeting with John Higgins. He came back from 1–3 down and, despite Higgins finding a snooker he needed in the final frame, he held his nerve to take the match 5–4 and his reach his fourth successive China Open quarter-final.^[18] There he beat Neil Robertson 5–3 to play local favourite Ding Junhui in the semi-finals. Ebdon again came back from 1–3 down, this time winning five successive frames to take the match 6–3 and make it to his first ranking event final since winning the same tournament three years earlier.^[19] In the final he played Stephen Maguire and built a 5–1 lead in the first session, which was cut by three frames due to slow play. However, Maguire won seven of the next ten frames to level the match at 8 frames apiece. The final three frames were error strewn and slow, but with the clock approaching 01:00am Beijing time, Ebdon clinched the frame he required to win the eight-hour match 10–9. The result saw him rise seven places in the rankings to number 21 and during the final he recorded the 300th century break of his career.^[20][2] He made six century breaks during the tournament, the most of any player - four of which were in the final.^[21]

He continued his recent surge of form into the World Championship by recording a 10–0 whitewash over Alfie Burden in qualifying.^[22] However, his season was ended when he drew Ronnie O'Sullivan in the first round and lost 4–10, meaning he has failed to beat The Rocket since their infamous 2005 quarter-final.^[23] Despite his win in China, Ebdon finished the season ranked world number 20 meaning he had dropped 7 places during the year.^[24]

Status[link]

Ebdon was only the second player to have made two competitive maximum 147 breaks in professional tournament play — these coming at the Strachan Professional and UK Championship, both in 1992. In the same year, he became the first player to make four centuries in five frames.^[25]

Ebdon is renowned for his strict fitness regime in order to condition himself for snooker; he swims one mile a day and has cut down on carbohydrates and sugars in order to maximise physical fitness and stamina.^[26] He is a devotee of Napoleon Hill's classic motivational book Think and Grow Rich.

Ebdon has been criticised in the past for his exuberant outpourings of emotion after winning important frames or matches. However, since one particular outburst after potting the match ball against Stephen Lee during their 2001 World Championship second round encounter — repeatedly punching the air and shouting "Come on!" at the top of his voice — he has toned down his celebrations significantly.

Ebdon is also colour blind. In a frame in which the brown ball is in close proximity to a red, he usually asks the referee for help on which ball is which. During a match against Simon Bedford in the 2008 Grand Prix, Ebdon inadvertently potted the brown believing it to be a red.^[27]

At the 2010 Masters, Ebdon used the Real Thing's 1980s disco track "Can You Feel the Force?" as his entrance music.

Personal life[link]

Ebdon was born in Islington, before moving to Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. He started his career while at Highbury Grove School, resulting in him not taking his O levels – a decision he now regrets.^[28] In 2005, he emigrated with his wife Deborah and four children to Dubai and lived there until 2009. On January 22, 2009, it was revealed that Ebdon had split with his wife by mutual consent.^[29] In 2010 he remarried to Nora, who comes from Budapest,^[30] and has since become a vegan.^[31]

In 1996, Ebdon recorded a version of the David Cassidy song "I Am A Clown", and it was released as a single.^[29]

Performance timeline[link]