Ryan Day

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Ryan Day
Born	23 March 1980 Pontycymer
Nationality	Welsh
Professional	1999–present
Highest ranking	17 (2006/7)
2006/07 ranking	12 (provisional, 2007/8 season)
Career prize money	£180,575
Highest break	145 - Embassy World Championship (Qrd) 2004
Best ranking performance	Runner up Malta Cup 2007

Ryan Day (born 23 March 1980 in Pontycymer near Bridgend), is a Welsh professional snooker player.

He was named Young Player of Distinction of the season 2000/2001 by the World Snooker Association (WSA). He won the Benson and Hedges Snooker Championship 2002. With this win, he qualified for the 2002 Masters, where he beat Dave Harold before losing 6-0 to Stephen Hendry. He also won the WSA Challenge Tour 2001/2002 and was named WSA Newcomer of the Year 2002.

Due to problems with his liver in 2003, his results suffered badly. In 2004 however, he qualified for the World Snooker Championship - he led John Higgins 9-7 in the first round , but lost the last 3 frames. As some consolation, John commented that Ryan is "going to be a top player for many years to come".

In 2005, he reached the quarter-finals of his home tournament the Welsh Open, defeating Allister Carter and Steve Davis along the way. 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 13-10.

He is ranked 17th in the world for the 2006/2007 snooker season, which is 16 places higher than the year before. The current season is already the best of his career: he reached the quarter-finals of the Northern Ireland Trophy 2006 and was runner up in the Malta Cup 2007, losing 9-4 to Shaun Murphy. He is now provisionally ranked 12th for the 2007/2008 season.

[edit] Personal life

His girlfriend Lynsey gave birth to their daughter Francesca on the 2nd August (2006). Younger brother Rhys has played football for Manchester City and Mansfield Town and captained the Welsh under-21 side. Day and his father run the Pontycymer snooker club.