Fergal O'Brien

Fergal O'Brien (born 8 March 1972) is an Irish professional snooker player.

Fergal O'Brien
Paul Hunter Classic 2016
Born (1972-03-08) 8 March 1972
County Dublin,
Republic of Ireland
Sport country Ireland
NicknameThe Baby-Faced Assassin, Fearless Fergal
Professional1991–
Highest ranking9 (2000/01)
Current ranking 71 (as of 16 March 2020)
Career winnings£1,346,851
Highest break147:
2016 Championship League
Century breaks227
Tournament wins
Ranking1
Non-ranking2

A member of snooker's main tour since turning professional in 1991, O'Brien has been ranked within the world's top 64 players since 1994, reaching his highest position, 9th, for the 2000–01 season. He has won one ranking title - the 1999 British Open, where he defeated Anthony Hamilton 9–7 in the final - and reached two other major finals, notably in the 2001 Masters.[1]

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 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 and Dave Harold, 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 in a World Championship qualifier.

Fergal O'Brien at 2015 German Masters

O'Brien started the 2007–08 campaign in Shanghai where he had beaten Paul Davies and Barry Hawkins in qualifying rounds, however, he lost to Steve Davis in the first round. O'Brien also qualified for the Grand Prix but lost four of his group matches to finish 5th in his group ahead of only Graeme Dott.

After qualifying for the main draw of the 2007 Northern Ireland Trophy by beating Barry Pinches in a deciding frame, O'Brien went on to beat Dave Harold in the first round of the main draw. Victories over John Higgins (in a decider), Barry Hawkins and Ronnie O'Sullivan, 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, 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 after a record-breaking victory in the final qualifying round match against Dave Gilbert. The final frame set the record for the longest frame of the modern era, lasting 123 minutes and 41 seconds.[2]

Performance and rankings timeline
Tourname 1991/
92		 1992/
93		 1993/
94		 1994/
95		 1995/
96		 1996/
97		 1997/
98		 1998/
99		 1999/
00		 2000/
01		 2001/
02		 2002/
03		 2003/
04		 2004/
05		 2005/
06		 2006/
07		 2007/
08		 2008/
09		 2009/
10		 2010/
11		 2011/
12		 2012/
13		 2013/
14		 2014/
15		 2015/
16		 2016/
17		 2017/
18		 2018/
19		 2019/
20
Ranking[3][nb 1] [nb 2] 192 100 42 38 36 23 20 11 9 16 23 33 41 44 46 37 24 31 47 37 34 36 31 27 40 45 51 63
Ranking tournaments
Riga Masters[nb 3] Tournament Not Held MR 2R LQ 1R LQ
International Championship Not Held 1R 3R 2R 2R 1R LQ LQ LQ
China Championship Tournament Not Held NR QF 2R LQ
English Open Tournament Not Held 3R 1R 1R 3R
World Open[nb 4] LQ LQ LQ LQ QF 2R 1R 2R 2R 3R 2R 3R LQ 1R 2R RR RR LQ LQ 1R LQ LQ LQ Not Held 1R LQ 3R 2R
Northern Ireland Open Tournament Not Held 3R 1R 1R 3R
UK Championship LQ 1R 1R 3R LQ LQ 1R QF 1R QF 2R 1R 3R LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R 3R 1R 2R 3R 1R 1R 1R
Scottish Open[nb 5] NH 2R LQ LQ 2R LQ SF 3R 3R 2R 2R 1R LQ Not Held MR Not Held 2R 1R 1R 1R
European Masters[nb 6] LQ LQ 2R LQ LQ LQ NH LQ Not Held 2R LQ 1R LQ LQ 2R NR Not Held LQ LQ 2R 1R
German Masters[nb 7] Not Held LQ LQ LQ NR Not Held LQ LQ LQ 1R 1R 1R LQ 1R 1R LQ
World Grand Prix Tournament Not Held NR DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ
Welsh Open LQ LQ 3R 3R 2R QF 3R 3R QF 2R QF LQ LQ LQ 1R LQ LQ 1R 1R LQ 1R 1R 2R 1R 3R 3R 1R 1R 1R
Shoot-Out Tournament Not Held Non-Ranking Event 4R 2R 1R 1R
Players Championship[nb 8] Not Held DNQ 1R DNQ 2R DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ
Gibraltar Open Tournament Not Held MR 1R 1R 2R 4R
Tour Championship Tournament Not Held DNQ DNQ
World Championship LQ LQ 1R LQ LQ LQ 2R 1R QF 1R 1R LQ LQ 1R LQ 2R LQ LQ 1R LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R LQ LQ
Non-ranking tournaments
The Masters LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R F QF LQ LQ A LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ A A A A A A A A A A
Championship League Not Held RR A A A A A A RR RR A A A A
World Seniors Championship A Not Held A A A A F 1R A A A A
Former ranking tournaments
Classic LQ Tournament Not Held
Strachan Open[nb 9] LQ MR NR Tournament Not Held
Dubai Classic[nb 10] LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R 1R Tournament Not Held
Malta Grand Prix Not Held Non-Ranking Event 2R NR Tournament Not Held
Thailand Masters[nb 11] LQ 3R LQ LQ LQ QF 2R LQ 1R 2R QF NR Not Held NR Tournament Not Held
British Open LQ LQ LQ LQ 3R 1R 1R W 3R 2R 3R 3R 3R LQ Tournament Not Held
Irish Masters Non-Ranking Event LQ LQ LQ NH NR Tournament Not Held
Northern Ireland Trophy Tournament Not Held NR LQ F 1R Tournament Not Held
Bahrain Championship Tournament Not Held LQ Tournament Not Held
Wuxi Classic[nb 12] Tournament Not Held Non-Ranking Event 2R 1R 1R Tournament Not Held
Australian Goldfields Open[nb 13] Not Held NR Tournament Not Held LQ LQ 2R 2R 2R Not Held
Shanghai Masters Tournament Not Held 1R 1R LQ LQ 2R WR LQ QF LQ LQ 2R Non-Rank.
Paul Hunter Classic[nb 14] Tournament Not Held Pro-am Event Minor-Ranking Event 2R 2R 2R NR
Indian Open Not Held 2R 1R NH LQ 2R 1R NH
China Open[nb 15] Not Held NR LQ LQ 1R 1R Not Held LQ LQ LQ 1R 1R 1R LQ WR LQ 2R 1R LQ 1R 2R LQ NH
Former non-ranking tournaments
Champions Cup[nb 16] Not Held A A A A A RR A A Tournament Not Held
Malta Grand Prix Not Held A A A A A R SF Tournament Not Held
Scottish Masters A A A A A A A A 1R 1R LQ LQ Tournament Not Held
Irish Masters A A SF A A A QF A 1R 1R 1R Ranking Event NH SF Tournament Not Held
Irish Professional Championship SF 1R Tournament Not Held SF QF F Tournament Not Held
Irish Classic Tournament Not Held F F F W W Tournament Not Held
Shoot-Out Tournament Not Held 3R 2R 1R 1R 1R A Ranking Event
Performance Table Legend
LQ lost in the qualifying draw #R lost in the early rounds of the tournament
(WR = Wildcard round, RR = Round robin)		 QF lost in the quarter-finals
SF lost in the semi-finals F lost in the final W won the tournament
DNQ did not qualify for the tournament A did not participate in the tournament WD withdrew from the tournament
DQ disqualified from the tournament
NH / Not Heldevent was not held.
NR / Non-Ranking Eventevent is/was no longer a ranking event.
R / Ranking Eventevent is/was a ranking event.
MR / Minor-Ranking Eventevent is/was a minor-ranking event.
  1. From the 2010/2011 season it shows the ranking at the beginning of the season.
  2. New players on the Main Tour don't have a ranking.
  3. The event was called the Riga Open (2014/2015–2015/2016)
  4. The event was called the Grand Prix (1991/1992–2000/2001 and 2004/2005–2009/2010), the LG Cup (2001/2002–2003/2004) and the Haikou World Open (2011/2012–2013/2014)
  5. The event run under different names as International Open (1992/1993–1996/1997) and Players Championship (2003/2004)
  6. The event was called the European Open (1991/1992–1996/1997 and 2001/2002–2003/2004), Irish Open (1998/1999) and the Malta Cup (2004/2005–2007/2008)
  7. The event run under different name as German Open (1995/1996–1997/1998)
  8. The event was called the Players Tour Championship Grand Finals (2010/2011–2012/2013) and the Players Championship Grand Final (2013/2014–2015/2016)
  9. The event run under different name as Strachan Challenge (1992/1993–1993/1994)
  10. The event run under different names as Thailand Classic (1995/1996) and Asian Classic (1996/1997)
  11. The event run under different names as Asian Open (1991/1992–1992/1993) and Thailand Open (1993/1994–1996/1997)
  12. The event run under different name as Jiangsu Classic (2008/2009–2009/2010)
  13. The event run under different names as Australian Open (1994/1995) and Australian Masters (1995/1996)
  14. The event was called the Grand Prix Fürth (2004/2005) and the Fürth German Open (2005/2006–2006/2007)
  15. The event run under different name as China International (1997/1998–1998/1999)
  16. The event run under different name as Charity Challenge (1994/1995–1998/1999)

Career finals

Ranking finals: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)
Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score
Winner 1. 1999 British Open Anthony Hamilton 9–7
Runner-up 1. 2007 Northern Ireland Trophy Stephen Maguire 5–9

Minor-ranking finals: 1 (1 runner-up)
Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score
Runner-up 1 2014 Gdynia Open Shaun Murphy 1–4

Non-ranking finals: 9 (2 titles, 7 runners-up)
Legend
The Masters (0–1)
Other (2–5)
Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score
Runner-up 1. 2001 The Masters Paul Hunter 9–10
Runner-up 2. 2003 Irish Open Joe Swail 3–10[4]
Runner-up 3. 2007 Irish Professional Championship Ken Doherty 2–9
Runner-up 4. 2007 Irish Classic David Morris 3–5
Runner-up 5. 2008 Irish Classic (2) Ken Doherty 2–5
Runner-up 6. 2009 Irish Classic (3) Joe Swail 0–5
Winner 1. 2010 Irish Classic Michael Judge 5–1
Winner 2. 2011 Irish Classic (2) Ken Doherty 5–2
Runner-up 7. 2015 World Seniors Championship Mark Williams 1–2

Team finals: 1 (1 runner-up)
Outcome No. Year Championship Team Opponent(s) in the final Score
Runner-up 1. 1996 World Cup  Ireland  Scotland 7–10

References
  1. "Echo Sports Awards 2019: Ireland snooker great Fergal O'Brien receives 'Hall of Fame' accolade". echo.ie. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
  2. "World Snooker Championship: Fergal O'Brien wins longest frame in snooker history to qualify". BBC. 13 April 2017. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  3. "Ranking History". Snooker.org. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  4. "Swail lifts Irish crown". BBC Sport. Retrieved 16 February 2020.


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