Peter Ebdon

Ebdon turned professional in 1991. Sporting a ponytail, he 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 7–13 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.[2] 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.

Ebdon's greatest achievement was his 18–17 defeat of Stephen Hendry in the 2002 World Championship final,[3] having started the tournament at odds of 33–1.[2] He had previously reached the final of the tournament in 1996, which he lost 12–18 to Hendry, and was also runner-up at the 2006 event to Graeme Dott in which, at 7–15 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 6–10 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.[4] 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.[5]

Among Ebdon's other career highlights was winning the 2006 UK Championship in 2006, beating Stephen Hendry 10–6 in the final[6] – 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 led to an investigation of suspicious betting patterns by the Gambling Commission. The WPBSA, however, did not launch an investigation.[7][8] In 2009, Ebdon beat John Higgins 10–8 to win the China Open. However, in the subsequent World Championship, Ebdon lost 5–10 to Nigel Bond in the first round. A year later, after a disappointing season, Ebdon once again lost 5–10 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.[9]

2010 Brugge Open

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.[10] 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.[11] However, he was knocked out in the first round of both the 2010 UK Championship and World Championship, but was still ranked as number 13 at the end of the season.[12]

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.[13] He lost his first qualifying match in an attempt to reach the 2011 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.[14] 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.[11]

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.[15][16]

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 reach his fourth successive China Open quarter-final.[17] 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.[18] 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 01:00 am 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.[19][20] 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]

Ebdon began the season by qualifying for the Wuxi Classic and lost 4–5 to an in-form Stuart Bingham in the first round.[25] He then played in the Australian Goldfields Open, beating Michael Holt, Ding Junhui and Shaun Murphy all by 5–4 scorelines.[25] The match against Ding caused a degree of controversy as Ebdon had taken an average of 32 seconds a shot in a nine frame encounter lasting almost 5 hours.[26] In the semi-finals he defeated Marco Fu 6–2, despite his opponent having over a 90% pot success, 80% long pot success and 80% in his safety game success.[27] He faced Barry Hawkins in the final and succumbed to a 3–9 defeat,[28] admitting afterwards that he had struggled in every department of his game.[29] Ebdon lost in the first round of the Shanghai Masters, but continued his good start to the season at the inaugural International Championship. He received a bye through the first round as Stephen Lee had been suspended due to match fixing allegations,[30] and only conceded one frame in beating Stephen Maguire and Ricky Walden to advance to the semi-finals.[25] There he was thrashed 1–9 by Judd Trump.[31]

During the rest of the season Ebdon lost in qualifying for three ranking events and in the first round of the World Open and the China Open.[25] He qualified for the World Championship by coming back from 6–8 to beat Kurt Maflin 10–8 and played Graeme Dott in the first round, a repeat of the 2006 final.[32] His place in the main draw meant Ebdon equalled Steve Davis by featuring in 22 consecutive appearances in the tournament, second only to Stephen Hendry's record of 27.[33] His match against Dott lasted seven hours, spread over three sessions as Ebdon battled back from 2–6 to level at 6–6, before losing the last four frames to succumb to a 6–10 defeat.[34] Dott called for new rules to be brought in to combat slow play after the match.[35] Ebdon fell 10 places in the end of season rankings to world number 30.[36]

2014 German Masters

Ebdon had a slow start to the 2013–14 season as in the opening four ranking events he lost in the first round twice and failed to qualify for the other two.[37] His form improved at the International Championship with victories over Jack Lisowski and Mark Joyce. Ebdon then held his nerve against Neil Robertson to win 6–5 after having led 5–3 and revealed afterwards that he was trying to speed up his game. Robertson called Ebdon an all-time great and stated that he could beat his quarter-final opponent Ding Junhui if he could play the same again.[38] Ding had won the previous two ranking events and, although the match lasted four hours, he beat Ebdon 6–3.[39] He could not advance beyond the second round of a ranking event until the penultimate tournament, the China Open.[37] Ebdon eliminated Jimmy Robertson 5–3 and won a deciding frame against Judd Trump, saying later that he proved he could still beat the best players in the game.[40] In the third round he was defeated 3–5 by Ali Carter.[41] Ebdon's proud 22-year playing streak in the World Championship ended this season as he lost 8–10 against Finland's Robin Hull to miss the event for the first time since turning professional.[42]

2015 German Masters

The 2014–15 season was the first time since 1992–93 that Ebdon failed to play in a ranking event quarter-final, with three last 16 finishes being his deepest runs.[43] He did have his best year so far in the minor-ranking European Tour as a quarter-final appearance at the Riga Open and a semi-final at the Bulgarian Open saw him ranked 13th on the Order of Merit, to make his debut at the Grand Final where he lost 1–4 to Anthony McGill in the first round.[44] At the non-ranking World Grand Prix, Ebdon made a 136 total clearance in the deciding frame of his first round match against Shaun Murphy and then defeated Stephen Maguire 4–1.[45] In the quarter-finals Ebdon was ousted 2–4 by Martin Gould.[46] He missed out on playing in the World Championship for the second year in a row as Stuart Carrington beat him 10–7 in the second qualifying round.[43]

At the 2015 UK Championship, Ebdon beat Lu Chenwei 6–0, Dominic Dale 6–5 and reigning world champion Stuart Bingham 6–3 to reach the fourth round, where he lost 2–6 to David Grace.[47][48] At 45, he was the oldest man in the field at the World Grand Prix, but knocked out Neil Robertson 4–3, before Ding Junhui whitewashed him 0–4 in the second round.[49] Ebdon eliminated James Wattana 10–6 in the first round of World Championship qualifying and then incredibly came back from 3–9 behind against Gerard Greene to win 10–9 just after 2am.[50] He qualified for the first time in three years by defeating Ian Burns 10–2 and lost 2–10 to Marco Fu in the opening round.[51][52]

Ebdon had 4–1 victories over Zhou Yuelong, Duane Jones, and Dominic Dale, to advance to the quarter-finals of the Indian Open in which he lost 3–4 to Nigel Bond.[53] He made his 24th appearance at the World Championship after beating Michael Holt 10–9 on the final black to qualify.[54] He recovered from a position of requiring four snookers, to win the 9th frame of his first round match against Stuart Bingham on a re-spotted black, and only trailed 4–5 overnight; however, he was ultimately defeated 5–10.[55] Ebdon ended the season outside the top 32 in the world rankings for the first time since 1992, as he was ranked 40th.[56]

2018 Paul Hunter Classic

Ebdon appeared in a ranking final for the 18th time in his career at the 2018 Paul Hunter Classic. He faced Kyren Wilson for the title, but lost out 2–4.