Martin Gould
 | |
| Born |
14 September 1981 Pinner, London |
|---|---|
| Sport country |
 England |
| Nickname | The Pinner Potter |
| Professional | 2000–2005, 2007– |
| Highest ranking | 11 (February–March 2012)[1] |
| Current ranking | 33 (as of 10 February 2014) |
| Highest break | 139 (PTC Event 11 - 2011) |
| Best ranking finish | Final (2011 PTC Finals) |
| Tournament wins | |
| Minor-ranking | 1 |
| Non-ranking | 1 |
Martin Gould (born 14 September 1981) is an English professional snooker player from Pinner in the London Borough of Harrow. He practises at the Whetstone Snooker Club. He works part-time as a debt collector.
Career
Gould began his professional career by playing Challenge Tour in 2000, at the time the second-level professional tour.[2] In 2002, Gould won his first English Amateur Championship, beating Craig Taylor in the final. Gould reached the semi-finals of the 2002 European Championship.
Gould enjoyed a good run in the qualification for the 2003 World Championship, winning 8 matches, beating Alain Robidoux and Stephen Maguire. Gould's campaign ended when he lost to Patrick Wallace. However, he dropped off the Main Tour after this sole season, and barely played for the next four years, having to look after his terminally ill mother.
Gould returned to action in 2007 as he won his second English Amateur Championship, beating David Lilley 8–7 in a dramatic black-ball decider, as Lilley potted the black only for the white ball to go in-off. He then won the English Play-Offs in Leeds to ensure his return to the Main Tour for 2007/08 season.
Gould reached the last 32 of the 2007 Northern Ireland Trophy, beating Matthew Stevens 5–4 from 3–0 down in the last 48. He also won multiple qualifying matches at both the UK Championship and World Championship qualifying events, although he did not ultimately qualify for either event. He finished the season inside the top 64.
Gould came through qualifying for the 2008 Maplin UK Championship, beating Supoj Saenla 9–1, Tom Ford 9–6, and in the final qualifying round overturned a 5–2 deficit to overcome Dominic Dale 9–6. In the first round Gould faced eventual champion Shaun Murphy, Murphy did go 7–3 ahead before Gould rattled off four frames in a row to bring the score back to 7–7, but Murphy held on to seal a 9–7 victory. Gould then also reached the last 16 of a ranking event for the first time, at the 2009 Welsh Open, beating Stephen Hendry 5–3 in the last 32. Solid qualifying results in the remainder of the season helped him into the top 48 in the world rankings for 2009/10 season meaning Gould had only to win two matches to qualify for events. In the World Championship qualifying, Gould defeated Rodney Goggins 10–7, David Gilbert 10–8 and former top 16 player Matthew Stevens 10–4 to qualify for the World Championship, where he lost in the first round. Despite dismal results during the first tournaments of 2009/10 season, he again returned to the Crucible the following year and defeated Marco Fu 10–9 in the first round. In the second round he spectaculary led Neil Robertson 6–0, 11–5 and 12–10, playing arguably his best snooker ever, before ultimately losing 13–12.[3] Robertson went on to win the championship that year.
Gould had a strong start to the 2010/11 season, reaching the last 16 of the Shanghai Masters after beating Stephen Hendry 5–3, and scored his major ranking quarter-final at the World Open, where he lost 1–3 to Peter Ebdon. He performed successfully during the minor-ranking PTC events, his best result being the final of the Event 6, where he lost 3-4 to Dominic Dale despite Dale needing snookers in the decider. Having qualified to the PTC Grand Finals, in March 2011 Gould reached his first career final, where he was beaten 4–0 by Shaun Murphy. Gould once again qualified for the World Championship, and defeated Marco Fu 10–8 in a repeat of the previous year's first round match. Gould was then defeated by reigning China Open champion and eventual World Championship runner-up, Judd Trump.
Top 16 breakthrough
Gould began the 2011/2012 season by qualifying for the first two ranking events of the year, the Australian Goldfields Open and the Shanghai Masters, being knocked out in the first round by Stephen Hendry in the former and in the second round to Matthew Stevens in the latter.[4] His consistent performances were enough to see him break into the elite top 16 for the first time in October, meaning he would no longer have to qualify for the ranking tournaments.[5]
In November, Gould won the Masters Trophy of the variant form of the game, Power Snooker, beating reigning champion Ronnie O'Sullivan in the final.[6] Gould finished 2011 by reaching the final of PTC Event 11, where he lost to Tom Ford 3–4.[7] He also reached the semi-finals of Event 9 and Event 12 to finish 10th in the Order of Merit and seal his place in the Finals, where he lost 1–4 to eventual winner Stephen Lee in the last 24.[8][9] Gould's recent rise up the world rankings earned him a place in the prestigious Masters tournament for the first time in 2012. Only the top 16 are invited to the event with Gould drawing Shaun Murphy in the first round and being beaten 2–6.[10] After breaking into the top 16, Gould only won two matches in ranking events during the rest of the campaign. His season ended with three successive first round defeats, culminating in a 8–10 loss to David Gilbert in the World Championship.[4] He finished the season ranked world number 14, meaning he had climbed 7 places during the year.[11]
The 2012/2013 season was a year of contrasts for Gould as he won three tournaments, but failed to perform in the ranking events. He began with a 3–5 defeat to Jamie Cope in the Wuxi Classic, but then beat Ken Doherty 5–3 and Cao Yupeng 5–4 to reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Goldfields Open where he lost 2–5 to Mark Davis.[12] Gould then won his first professional title carrying ranking points at the minor-ranking Second PTC event of the season. He beat Stephen Maguire 4–3 in the final and credited his work with new coach Stephen Feeney as a major reason for his success.[13] He couldn't translate this form in to the main ranking tournaments though, as he lost in the first round of the next three events and lost his qualifying match in another three to drop out of the top 16.[12][14] At the Snooker Shoot-Out, the event where each match is played over one frame lasting 10 minute under shot clock rules, Gould won the title by beating Mark Allen in the final. The £32,000 cheque he received is the biggest of his career to date.[15] Despite following this up with first round defeats in the World Open and PTC Finals, Gould had won Group 5 of the Championship League to qualify for the Winners Group.[12] There he won three of his six matches to progress to the semi-finals where he beat Ding Junhui 3–0, before seeing off Ali Carter 3–2 to win the tournament with a century break in the deciding frame.[16] Gould's season ended when he lost 5–10 to Shaun Murphy in the first round of the World Championship to finish the year ranked world number 25, a drop of 11 places from the start season.[12][17]
Career Finals
Ranking event finals: 1 (1 runner-up)
Minor-ranking event finals: 3 (1 title, 2 runner-ups)
Non-ranking event finals: 1 (1 title)
Variant event finals: 2 (2 titles)
Notes
References
External links
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