 Walker at the 2014 German Masters | |
| Born | 16 March 1994 Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England |
|---|---|
| Sport country |  England |
| Professional | 2012–2016 |
| Highest ranking | 72 (August 2015) [1] |
| Best ranking finish | Quarter-final (x1) |
Joel Walker (born 16 March 1994) is an English former professional snooker player. In 2010 he won the Rileys Future Stars competition and turned professional in 2012 through Q School.
In 2010 Walker won Rileys Future Stars competition, and won £5,000 and coaching sessions with Ronnie O'Sullivan. [2] The same year he was invited to compete in the World Open. [3] He defeated Julian Logue 3–1 in the first qualifying round, but lost 1–3 against Tony Drago in the next round. [4] Walker also competed at the Players Tour Championship, with his best result coming at the fourth event in Sheffield, where he reached the last 64 and lost 0–4 against Robert Milkins. [5] He finished 137th on the Order of Merit. [6] [7] [8] He tried unsuccessfully to turn professional through the Q School, with his best result coming in the second tournament, where he reached the last 16, but lost 1–4 against Simon Bedford. [5]
Walker competed at the Players Tour Championship also in the 2011–12 season. His best result came at the second and third UK event, where he reached the last 128, but lost 1–4 against Stephen Lee and 0–4 against Ding Junhui respectively. [9] He finished 531st on the Order of Merit. [10] [11] Walker turned professional after coming through Event 3 of the 2012 Q School and gained a two-year tour card for the 2012–13 and 2013–14 snooker seasons. He won five consecutive matches in the event, culminating in a 4–0 victory against Justin Astley. [12]
Walker's first match as a professional was a 5–4 win over Cao Yupeng, who had reached the last 16 of the World Championship two months earlier. Walker lost to Peter Lines by the same scoreline in the next round. [13] He did not win a qualifying match for a ranking event during the rest of the season. [13] Walker fared better in the minor-ranking Players Tour Championship events as he played in all ten tournaments, with his best result coming in the Scottish Open, where he beat Andrew Pagett and Stuart Bingham, before losing 2–4 to Liang Wenbo in the last 32. [13] He was placed 76th on the PTC Order of Merit, [14] and finished his first year on tour ranked world number 90. [15]
In his opening match, Walker defeated Ian Burns 5–2 to qualify for the 2013 Wuxi Classic in China. In Walker's first appearance in the main draw of a ranking event, he defeated Alex Davies 5–2 in the first round to progress to the last 32 stage, where he lost 5–2 against Ben Woollaston. [16] Walker failed to qualify for the next four ranking tournaments, and lost in the last 128 match of the UK Championship. [17] He started 2014 by reaching the last 32 of the German Masters, and then went even further at the Welsh Open, defeating Pankaj Advani, Mark Davis, James Wattana and defending champion Stephen Maguire to reach his first ever major quarter-final. [18] He led world number three Ding Junhui 4–2 and missed several chances to wrap up a win which would have doubled his previous career prize money earnings to be defeated 5–4. [19]
After Walker was edged out of the second round of World Championship qualifying 10–9 by Jamie Jones he ended the year ranked world number 80, outside of the top 64 in the rankings and would be relegated from the tour. [20] However, he performed very well throughout the season in the European Tour events, reaching the last 16 of the Kay Suzanne Memorial Cup and the quarter-finals of the Antwerp Open. As a result, he finished 35th on the Order of Merit to claim the second of eight spots which were available to non-qualified players to play on the main tour for the 2014–15 and 2015–16 seasons. [21]
The first ranking event Walker could qualify for during the 2014–15 season was the International Championship thanks to a 6–4 win over Ken Doherty. Walker drew Martin Gould in the first round and made a century and two further breaks above 50 to level at 4–4 after being 4–1 down, but then lost two frames in a row to exit the tournament. [22] He eliminated Alan McManus 6–1 and Tom Ford 6–3 at the UK Championship and then led world number 11 Stuart Bingham 3–0, but went on to lose in a deciding frame. [23] Walker was knocked out of the first round of the Welsh Open and Indian Open 4–2 by Mark Joyce and 4–0 by Matthew Selt. [24] Before the start of the World Championship, Walker stated his desire to become the first player from Sheffield to play in the event, but he lost 10–6 to Stuart Carrington in the first qualifying round. [23]
Walker made his debut in the Australian Goldfields Open thanks to beating Jamie Cope 5–2, Adam Duffy 5–3 and Gary Wilson 5–3 in the qualifiers, but was thrashed 5–0 by Stephen Maguire in the first round. He was whitewashed in the opening round of two other ranking events, 6–0 by Joe Swail at the UK Championship and 4–0 by Marco Fu at the Welsh Open. [25] Walker entered Q School as he dropped off the tour at the end of the season by being placed 80th in the world rankings. [26] [27] He only won one match during the two events to confirm his relegation. [25]
In the second event of 2017 Q School, Walker was two victories away from rejoining the professional tour, but lost 4–3 in the fifth round to Joe Swail. [28]
| Tournament | 2012/ 13 | 2013/ 14 | 2014/ 15 | 2015/ 16 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ranking [nb 1] | [nb 2] | 90 | [nb 3] | 87 | |||||
| Ranking tournaments | |||||||||
| Australian Goldfields Open | LQ | LQ | LQ | 1R | |||||
| Shanghai Masters | LQ | LQ | LQ | LQ | |||||
| International Championship | LQ | LQ | 1R | LQ | |||||
| UK Championship | LQ | 1R | 3R | 1R | |||||
| German Masters | LQ | 2R | LQ | LQ | |||||
| Welsh Open | LQ | QF | 1R | 1R | |||||
| World Grand Prix [nb 4] | LQ | LQ | NR | DNQ | |||||
| Players Championship Grand Final [nb 5] | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | |||||
| China Open | LQ | LQ | LQ | LQ | |||||
| World Championship | LQ | LQ | LQ | LQ | |||||
| Former ranking tournaments | |||||||||
| Wuxi Classic | LQ | 2R | LQ | NH | |||||
| Indian Open | NH | LQ | 1R | NH | |||||
| Performance Table Legend | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LQ | lost in the qualifying draw | #R | lost in the early rounds of the tournament | 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 |
| NH / Not Held | means an event was not held. | |||
| NR / Non-Ranking Event | means an event is/was no longer a ranking event. | |||
| R / Ranking Event | means an event is/was a ranking event. | |||
| MR / Minor-Ranking Event | means an event is/was a minor-ranking event. | |||
| Outcome | No. | Year | Championship | Opponent in the final | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 1. | 2018 | Challenge Tour – Event 7 | Jenson Kendrick | 3–0 |
Anthony Stephen Hamilton is an English professional snooker player. He has spent five seasons ranked among the game's elite Top 16 and fifteen in the Top 32, reaching a career-high of number ten in the world in the 1999/2000 season. Hamilton is a four-time World Championship quarter-finalist, a Masters semi-finalist and he has compiled more than 300 century breaks during his long career. He won his first ranking title in 2017, beating Ali Carter 9–6 in the final of the German Masters, doing so at the age of 45.
Jamie Cope is an English former professional snooker player.
Kurt Graham Maflin is an English-Norwegian former professional snooker player. A strong break-builder, Maflin has compiled more than 200 century breaks during his career and has made two 147 breaks in professional competition.
Andrew Higginson is an English professional snooker player from Widnes, Cheshire. He is best known for being the surprise finalist of the 2007 Welsh Open.
Liu Chuang is a Chinese former professional snooker player.
Jamie Jones is a Welsh professional snooker player from Neath. At the age of 14 he was the youngest ever player to make a maximum 147 break in competition, a record that has since been beaten by Judd Trump. At the 2012 World Snooker Championship, Jones reached his first ranking quarter-final. He made his second appearance in the quarter-finals of a Triple Crown tournament at the 2016 UK Championship.
Ben Woollaston is an English professional snooker player from Leicester. His sole professional title came at the minor-ranking third Players Tour Championship event in 2011. Woollaston's only ranking event final came at the 2015 Welsh Open, in which he lost to John Higgins.
Alex Davies is an English former professional snooker player from Holland-on-Sea in Essex. He is the youngest person ever to win the English Amateur Championship, in 2003. Davies began his professional career by playing Challenge Tour in 2003, at the time the second-level professional tour. Davies was on the WPBSA Main Tour for the 2007–08 season, but dropped off. In May 2013, he returned to the main tour by winning five matches at the first event of the 2013 Q School concluding with a 4–1 win over Mitchell Travis to earn a place on the tour for the 2013–14 and 2014–15 season.
Daniel Wells is a Welsh professional snooker player from Neath. He has twice come through Qualifying School to play on the professional snooker tour, and turned professional again at the beginning of the 2023–24 season after placing top of the 2022–23 One Year Ranking List for players outside the top 64, despite competing as an amateur for the entire season.
Jin Long is a Chinese former professional snooker player. He is nicknamed "Golden Dragon", which is a translation of his given name.
The Players Tour Championship was a series of snooker tournaments comprising some minor-ranking events played in Europe, and an Asian leg comprising some minor-ranking events in Asia. The series concluded with a Grand Final, where qualification was based on performance in the other PTC events, and had the status of a full ranking tournament. Each regular event lasted for at least three days, with qualifying days for amateurs should the event be oversubscribed. Each event costs £100 to enter, and Main Tour players can gain ranking points in the events.
Dechawat Poomjaeng is a Thai former professional snooker player.
Li Yan is a former professional snooker player from the People's Republic of China.
Adam Duffy is an English former professional snooker player.
Ian Burns is an English professional snooker player.
Ross Muir is a Scottish professional snooker player. Muir turned professional in 2013 after graduating from event two of Q School, defeating David Morris 4–0 in the final round. He regularly wears a glove on his bridge hand.
Fraser Patrick is a Scottish former professional snooker player from Glasgow.
The Players Championship is a professional ranking snooker tournament. Held as the Players Tour Championship Finals from 2011 to 2016, it was rebranded as the standalone Players Championship in 2017. One of three events in the Players Series, it features the top 16 players on the one-year ranking list. Mark Allen is the reigning champion, having won the 2024 event.
Steven Hallworth is an English former professional snooker player. He is the only ever qualified professional from Lincoln. He is a practice partner of Stuart Carrington.
Mitchell Mann is an English professional snooker player.
