For some time, he was the sole Nordic player on the game's main tour. He is known as a solid break -builder, having compiled over 150 competitive centuries during his career, among the highest for a player who has never featured in the top 16 in the world rankings.
Hull became a professional snooker player in 1992.[3] In the 2001–02 season, he reached the last 16 of the 2001 UK Championship, and later qualified for the 2002 World Championship, knocking out Steve Davis in the final qualifying round; in the first round proper, he lost 6–10 to Graeme Dott.[4] These results contributed to Hull entering the world top 32 at the end of the next season.[5]
A potentially fatal viralinfection kept Hull out of much of the 2003–04 season, although he still was able to reach his first ever quarter-final at the 2003 Welsh Open.[6] He later repeated this result at the 2006 Malta Cup. However, his performances were largely inconsistent due to his health issues. He was forced to pull out of qualifying for the 2007 World Championship due to an irregular heartbeat thought to be linked to his past illness.[7] After similar problems in the following season, he decided to retire from professional competition.[8]
In February 2010 Hull took part in an invitation event the Finnish Challenge, which featured a number of notable professionals. He impressed, beating Darren Morgan, Ken Doherty and Matthew Stevens on the way to the final, where he lost 1–6 to Mark Williams. This result encouraged Hull to take part in the 2011 Q School tournament in an attempt to qualify for the 2011–12 main tour, which he did successfully in the first event.[9] Due to lack of sponsorship he only played in a handful of events during the season with his best run coming in qualifying for the 2011 UK Championship in November where he beat Lucky Vatnani and Yu Delu, before losing to Peter Lines 4–6.[10] Hull did not enter another tournament after this and finished the season ranked world number 84, outside of the top 64 who retain their places for the 2012–13 season and therefore did not retain his spot on the main tour.[11] In the 2012–13 season Hull entered qualifying for the World Championship as an amateur, where he lost in the first round of preliminary qualifying 2–5 to Paul Wykes, despite making a 137 break during the match.[12][13]
Hull regained his main tour place for the 2013–14 season by winning the EBSA European Snooker Championships in Zielona Góra, Poland, beating Welshman Gareth Allen 7–2 in the final, finishing the match with two consecutive centuries.[14] He qualified for the 2013 International Championship by beating Liu Chuang 6–2, although he had to withdraw from the venue stages in China, and came close to beating the reigning world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan in the last 64 of the minor-ranking Kay Suzanne Memorial Cup, losing 4–3 after leading 3–1. However, Hull failed to win any other match at the rest of the tournaments, and due to financial reasons skipped most of the second part of the season until the World Championship, where he delivered his best performances in years.[15] He scored an impressive 10–3 win against Tony Drago in the first round, followed by a 10–6 defeat of Tian Pengfei, and a 10–4 win from 3–0 behind against Ian Burns in round three, to set up a final round match against Peter Ebdon, which Hull won 10–8 to reach the Crucible for the second time in his career.[15][16] He played O'Sullivan in the last 32 and lost 10–4, despite making a century in one of the frames.[17]
The 2014–15 season began well for Hull. He defeated Xiao Guodong, Graeme Dott and Cao Yupeng to reach the quarter-finals (the third of his professional career and first for eight years) of the 2014 Wuxi Classic where he lost 5–2 to eventual runner-up Joe Perry.[18][19] Hull won most of his opening round matches in the subsequent tournaments, but failed to progress beyond the last 64 stage until the 2015 China Open where he received a bye to the last 32 after Ronnie O'Sullivan's withdrawal, and defeated Mark King 5–4 to reach the last 16, where he lost 5–1 to Kurt Maflin.[18]
Due to missing most of the previous season, Hull arrived at the season-ending World Championship qualifiers needing a repeat of the previous year's performance to retain his tour card by getting into the top 64 of the world rankings. He did exactly that, as he beat Martin McCrudden, Ben Woollaston and Igor Figueiredo to qualify for the Crucible for the second year in a row.[20][21] He was defeated 10–3 by Shaun Murphy in the first round, but was ranked 61st in the world afterwards.[22][23]
Hull did not participate in many tournaments at the start of the 2015–16 season. His first win came at the 2015 UK Championship, where he defeated Zhang Anda 6–4 in the first round, followed by a 6–3 victory over world number eight Barry Hawkins.[24] He was defeated in the third round 6–2 by Luca Brecel, his efforts earning him £9,000.[25] At the Shoot-Out, the tournament in which every match is decided by a single 10-minute frame, Hull won his second professional title by beating Brecel in the final. The winner's prize of £32,000 is the highest pay day of his career.[26]
↑ Players qualified One Year Ranking List started the season without ranking points.
↑ The event was called the Riga Open (2014/2015–2015/2016)
↑ The event was called the Grand Prix (1992/1993–2000/2001 and 2004/2005–2009/2010), the LG Cup (2001/2002–2003/2004) and the Haikou World Open (2011/2012–2013/2014)
↑ The event was called the International Open (1992/1993–1996/1997) and the Players Championship (2003/2004)
↑ The event was called the Irish Open (1998/1999) and Malta Cup (2004/2005–2007/2008)
↑ The event was called the German Open (1995/1996–1997/1998)
↑ The event was called the Players Tour Championship Grand Finals (2011/2012–2012/2013) and the Players Championship Grand Final (2013/2014–2015/2016)
↑ The event was called the Thailand Classic (1995/1996) and the Asian Classic (1996/1997)
↑ The event was called the Asian Open (1992/1993) and the Thailand Open (1993/1994–1996/1997)
↑ The event was called the Jiangsu Classic (2008/2009–2009/2010)
↑ The event was called the Australian Open (1994/1995) and the Australian Masters (1995/1996)
↑ The event was called the Grand Prix Fürth (2004/2005) and the Fürth German Open (2005/2006–2006/2007)
↑ The event was called the China International (1997/1998–1998/1999)
↑ The event was called the Six-red Snooker International (2008/2009) and the Six-red World Grand Prix (2009/2010)
Mark King is an English former professional snooker player.
Stuart Bingham is an English professional snooker player who is a former World Champion and Masters winner.
Ricky Walden is an English professional snooker player from Chester.
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.
Tian Pengfei is a Chinese professional snooker player. He began his career by playing the Challenge Tour in 2004, at the time the second-level professional tour. Tian played on the Main Tour in 2006 and competed on the World Snooker Tour for two seasons until he dropped off in 2008. He won the Beijing International Challenge, and returned to the Main Tour the following year.
Matthew Selt is an English professional snooker player originally from Romford, east London and now living in Chelmsford, Essex. He qualified for the professional tour by finishing seventh in the Pontin's International Open Series in 2006/2007. Selt played in his first professional final in 2014 at the minor-ranking Lisbon Open, which he lost to Stephen Maguire, and has reached five quarter-finals in full ranking events. Selt won his first ranking title when he beat Lyu Haotian in the 2019 Indian Open final.
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.
Luca Brecel is a Belgian professional snooker player. A four-time ranking event winner, Brecel is the former World Snooker Champion, having won the 2023 event by defeating four-time champion Mark Selby 18–15 in the final. Brecel trailed Si Jiahui 5–14 in the semi-final, but eventually won 17–15. This comeback from nine frames behind is the biggest deficit ever overturned in the history of the World Championship at the Crucible Theatre.
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh is a Thai professional snooker player.
Sam Baird is an English former professional snooker player. He first entered the professional tour for the 2009/10 season, by winning the EBSA Pro-Ticket Tour Play-offs.
Noppon Saengkham is a Thai professional snooker player. Since turning professional in 2010, he has reached one ranking final in which he finished as runner-up to Gary Wilson.
Liam Highfield is an English former professional snooker player. He turned professional in 2010 after finishing second in the 2009/2010 PIOS rankings. He plays left-handed.
Yu Delu is a former professional snooker player from the People's Republic of China. He is currently serving a 10 years and 9 months ban for match-fixing from 25 May 2018 until 24 February 2029. The ban was announced on 1 December 2018 after the result of a lengthy investigation.
Sean O'Sullivan is an English former professional snooker player.
Gary Wilson is an English professional snooker player from Wallsend in North Tyneside, Tyne and Wear.
Stuart Carrington is an English professional snooker player. He practises frequently with Steven Hallworth and Ian Glover in Grimsby.
James Cahill is an English former professional snooker player from Blackpool. Cahill first turned professional in 2013, aged 17, after winning the European Under 21 Championships, but returned to amateur status in 2017.
Shaun Peter Murphy is an English professional snooker player who won the 2005 World Championship. Nicknamed "The Magician", Murphy is noted for his straight cue action and his long potting.
The 2023 World Snooker Championship was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 15 April to 1 May 2023 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England, the 47th consecutive year that the World Snooker Championship was staged at the venue. The qualifying rounds took place from 3 to 12 April 2023 at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. The 15th and final ranking tournament of the 2022–23 snooker season, it was organised by the World Snooker Tour and sponsored for the first time by car retailer Cazoo. It was broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC, in Europe by Eurosport, and elsewhere in the world by Matchroom Sport and other broadcasters. The total prize fund was £2,395,000, of which the winner received £500,000.
↑ Hayton, Eric; Dee, John (2004). The CueSport Book of Professional Snooker: The Complete Record & History. Lowestoft: Rose Villa Publications. pp.552–554. ISBN978-0-9548549-0-4.
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