Ryan Day (snooker player)

Day was born in Pontycymer, Bridgend, and began his professional career by playing UK Tour in 1998, at the time the second-level professional tour.[1] He was named Young Player of Distinction of the season 2000/2001 by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA). He won the 2001 Benson & Hedges Championship. With this win, he qualified for the 2002 Masters, where he defeated Dave Harold, before losing 0–6 to Stephen Hendry. He also won the WPBSA Challenge Tour in the 2001/2002 season and was named WPBSA Newcomer of the Year in 2002. Due to problems with his liver in 2003, his results suffered badly.

In 2004, however, he qualified for the World Snooker Championship and he led John Higgins 9–7 in the first round, becoming the first player to score three centuries in his first Crucible match, but missed a pink in the 17th frame that would have left Higgins needing a snooker to stay in the tournament. Higgins went on to win the frame and the next two for the match. As some consolation, Higgins commented that Day was "going to be a top player for many years to come".[2]

Day reached the quarter-finals of his home tournament, the 2005 Welsh Open defeating Allister Carter and Steve Davis along the way (coming back from 0–4 to beat Steve Davis 5–4). He finished this season ranked 33, but as Quinten Hann did not participate in any events, Day was always among the top 32 seeds, meaning one less qualifying match than he would otherwise have faced.

Back at the Crucible in 2006, he beat Joe Perry 10–3 in the first round and led Ronnie O'Sullivan 9–7 in the second round before losing 10–13. He narrowly missed reaching the top 16 of the rankings as a result.

The 2006/2007 season was the most successful of his career up till then. Day reached the quarter-finals of the 2006 Northern Ireland Trophy and was runner up in the 2007 Malta Cup, losing 4–9 to Shaun Murphy. That year's performance saw him ranked 16 in the world for the 2007/2008 season, one place higher than in the previous year. As a member of the Top 16, he automatically qualified for tournaments.

Day's 2007/2008 season started with an appearance in the final of the Shanghai Masters; Day led his practise partner Dominic Dale 6–2 after the first session, but eventually succumbed to a 6–10 defeat. After failing to progress past the last 16 in the next three tournaments, he reached the semi-finals of the China Open, beating Matthew Stevens, Ken Doherty and Mark Williams before he was beaten by Stephen Maguire 5–6, denying him a place in the final. Day made it through to the quarter-finals of the World Championship for the first time in his career by beating Irishman Michael Judge 10–6 and the defending champion John Higgins 13–9 in one of the best wins of his career,[3] before losing 7–13 to Stephen Hendry. His consistent performances took him up to 8th place in the rankings.

Day reached the final of the 2008 Grand Prix where he lost to John Higgins, defeating Ricky Walden, Mark Selby, Jamie Cope and Ali Carter. The year ended on a disappointing note when he lost in the first round at the UK Championship to Matthew Stevens. He again reached the World Championship quarter-finals in 2009, before losing 11–13 to Mark Allen. However, he continued to move up the rankings, climbing 2 places to number 6, the highest ranked player not to have won a ranking event.

A disappointing 2009–10 season in which he reached only one quarter-final (in the Welsh Open), culminated in an 8–10 first round defeat in the World Championship to Mark Davis.[4] This continued into the next season where he made a number of early exits which meant that at the first revision under the new ranking system he dropped out the top 16, down to number 20.

Day qualified for five of the eight ranking tournaments during the 2011–12 season, losing in the first round in four.[5] His best performance came at the end of the season in the biggest event on the tournament calendar, the World Championship. He came back from 3–7 down in his qualifying match against Gerard Greene to win 10–8, to set up a first round match with China's number 1, Ding Junhui.[6] Day produced another comeback, this time from trailing 6–9 to win the last 4 frames and advance to the second round.[7] There he beat fellow qualifier Cao Yupeng 13–7 and held a 5–2 lead in the early stages of his quarter-final match against compatriot Matthew Stevens.[5] However, he suffered a migraine at the start of the next session and went on to lose 11 consecutive frames to exit the tournament 5–13.[8] Day finished the season ranked world number 30.[9]

2012 Paul Hunter Classic

Day lost in qualifying for the opening ranking event of the 2012–13 season the Wuxi Classic 0–5 to Robert Milkins.[10] He was then beaten in the second round of the Australian Goldfields Open and the Shanghai Masters, 3–5 to Matthew Selt and 0–5 to John Higgins respectively.[10] Day was defeated 3–6 by Neil Robertson in the opening round of the International Championship, but then came perhaps the best result of his season at the UK Championship.[10] He beat Ding Junhui 6–4 in a high quality first round encounter,[11] before letting a 3–0 lead against world number two Mark Selby slip to lose 4–6.[12] Day played in nine of the ten minor-ranking Players Tour Championship events during the season with his best results being two quarter-final defeats to be ranked 32nd on the Order of Merit, just outside the top 26 who qualified for the Finals.[13] Day struggled in the second half of the season as he failed to qualify for four of the remaining five ranking events, losing 2–5 in the first round of the World Open to Mark Allen in the one he did reach.[10] He failed to qualify for the World Championship for the first time since 2006, narrowly losing to Ben Woollaston 9–10 in the fourth and final qualifying round. He finished the season ranked world number 31.[14]

2014 German Masters

Day was beaten in the second round once and first round three times in the opening four ranking events of the 2013–14 season, but then reached the quarter-finals for the first time in over a year at the International Championship.[15] Day won the first frame against Joe Perry but was thrashed 6–1.[16] He went a stage further at the German Masters and, in an attempt to play in his first ranking final since 2008, he came from 5–3 down against Ding Junhui to level the match, but lost the deciding frame.[17] A trio of second round losses and a first round defeat in the China Open followed.[15] At the World Championship, Day maintained his composure when Stephen Maguire levelled the scores from 8–4 and 9–6 down in the first round, to win the final frame and advance to the second round.[18] His season then ended when he lost 13–7 to Judd Trump,[19] but he did increase his ranking by 10 places to world number 21, his highest finish for four years.[20]

2015 German Masters

For the second season in a row Day qualified for every ranking event. A pair of last 16 defeats at the Wuxi Classic and Shanghai Masters proved to be his best results in the first half of the year.[21] At the Haining City Open he achieved his first official maximum break in his last 32 match against Cao Yupeng.[22] Day would go on to reach the quarter-finals, but lost 4–2 to Oliver Lines. After Day won the final two frames of his first round match against world number one Ding Junhui at the German Masters to eliminate him 5–4, he said that he was working on his consistency to get back into the highest echelons of the game.[23] He then beat Alfie Burden 5–2 to face Liang Wenbo in Day's only quarter-final appearance of the season and was narrowly beaten 5–4.[24] In Day's home event he suffered a surprise 4–1 loss to amateur Oliver Brown in the second round of the Welsh Open.[25] Day was 3–1 ahead of Mark Allen in the first round of the World Championship, but then lost nine successive frames to be knocked out 10–3.[26]

Day lost 5–4 to Ding Junhui in the second round of the Shanghai Masters, but turned the tables at the same stage of the International Championship by beating him 6–5.[27][28] Day was defeated 6–4 by David Gilbert in the following round.[29] However, in his next event he whitewashed Mark Selby 4–0 in the quarter-finals of the Bulgarian Open and beat Sam Baird 4–2 to play in the final of an event carrying ranking points for the first time since 2008, but he was thrashed 4–0 by Mark Allen.[30] He lost 6–2 to Dechawat Poomjaeng in the second round of the UK Championship, but knocked out reigning world champion Stuart Bingham 5–3 to reach the quarter-finals of the German Masters. Day lost the final three frames against Kyren Wilson to be eliminated 5–4.[31] He made two centuries and won the deciding frame on the final black against John Higgins to make another quarter-final at the World Grand Prix.[32] He was defeated 4–2 by Bingham, losing the final frame from 56–0 points up, after Bingham made a 64 break.[33] After being defeated 10–3 by Higgins in the opening round of the World Championship, Day said he would be working on his fitness in the off season in an attempt to improve his concentration during matches.[34]

Day advanced to the quarter-final stage of the Shanghai Masters by overcoming Neil Robertson and Mei Xiwen both 5–2 and lost 5–3 to Mark Selby.[35] He won the first four frames against Mark Allen in the third round of the UK Championship, but went on to lose 6–5.[36] His second quarter-final of the season came at the German Masters and he was defeated 5–2 by Martin Gould.[37] At the World Grand Prix, Day overcame Stuart Bingham, Michael White and Shaun Murphy all 4–2. In the semi-finals he was 4–3 down to Marco Fu, but recovered from needing four snookers in the eighth frame to level and went on to win 6–4.[38] In Day's first ranking event final since 2008 he was 9–3 behind Barry Hawkins and, though he pulled it back to 9–7, he was defeated 10–7.[39] Day lost in the final of the non-ranking Championship League 3–0 to John Higgins.[40] A 4–2 win over Neil Robertson saw Day play in the semi-finals of the Gibraltar Open and he was beaten 4–2 by Judd Trump after leading 2–0.[41] Day was a seeded player for the World Championship, but lost 10–4 Xiao Guodong in the first round and once again blamed his lack of concentration for the early exit.[42]

Day finally clinched his maiden ranking title in his fifth final appearance. The Welshman defeated Stephen Maguire 5–2 to claim the Riga Masters title. The Welshman sensationally stormed to consecutive titles at the 2018 Gibraltar Open and the 2018 Romanian Masters. He defeated Cao Yupeng and Stuart Bingham in the respective finals.