Ryan Day

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Ryan Day
Ryan Day plays Xiao Guodong at the 2014 German Masters
Born (1980-03-23) 23 March 1980
Pontycymer, Bridgend
Sport country  Wales
Nickname Dynamite
Professional 1998–
Highest ranking 6 (2009/10)
Current ranking 21 (as of 10 February 2014)
Career winnings GB£449,105[1]
Highest break 145 (World Snooker Championship Qualifying 2004)
Century breaks 162
Best ranking finish Runner-up (2007 Malta Cup, 2007 Shanghai Masters, 2008 Grand Prix)
Tournament wins
Non-ranking 1

Ryan Day (born 23 March 1980) is a Welsh professional snooker player. He is known as a very solid breakbuilder and is one of only 35 players to have made over a century of centuries.[2]

Career

Early career

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.[3] He is 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".[4]

2005–present

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 to date. 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,[5] 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 2009/2010 season in which he reached only one quarter-final (in the Welsh Open), culminated in a 8–10 first round defeat in the World Championship to Mark Davis.[6] 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 2011/2012 season, losing in the first round in four.[7] 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.[8] Day produced another comeback, this time from trailing 6–9 to win the last 4 frames and advance to the second round.[9] 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.[7] 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.[10] Day finished the season ranked world number 30.[11]

Day lost in qualifying for the opening ranking event of the 2012/2013 season the Wuxi Classic 0–5 to Robert Milkins.[12] 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.[12] 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.[12] He beat Ding Junhui 6–4 in a high quality first round encounter,[13] before letting a 3–0 lead against world number two Mark Selby slip to lose 4–6.[14] 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 of the top 26 who qualified for the Finals.[15] 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.[12] 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.[16]

Personal life

Day married his father's sister-in-law, Lynsey, in the summer of 2008.[17] They were married in Pontycymer, Bridgend, South Wales and honeymooned in Crete. Day and Lynsey started courting when Day was just 13 years old and four years younger than Lynsey.[18] The couple have two daughters, Francesca, born in 2006 and their youngest child born in 2010.

His younger brother Rhys has played football for Manchester City and captained the Welsh under-21 side. He is currently playing for Hyde FC.

Day and his father run The Veterans Club in Pontycymmer. The club is a combination of a snooker club and a public bar.

Performance and rankings timeline

Tournament 1997/
98		 1998/
99		 1999/
00		 2000/
01		 2001/
02		 2002/
03		 2003/
04		 2004/
05		 2005/
06		 2006/
07		 2007/
08		 2008/
09		 2009/
10		 2010/
11 		2011/
12 		2012/
13 		2013/
14
Ranking[19][nb 1] UR[nb 2][nb 3] UR[nb 3] UR UR 215[nb 3] 140 69 45 33 17 16 8 6 12 28 30 31
Ranking tournaments
Wuxi Classic[nb 4] Tournament Not Held Non-ranking LQ 1R
Australian Goldfields Open Tournament Not Held 1R 2R 1R
Shanghai Masters Tournament Not Held F QF QF 1R 1R 2R 2R
Indian Open Tournament Not Held 1R
International Championship Tournament Not Held 1R QF
UK Championship A A 1R 1R A LQ LQ 2R 1R 2R 1R 1R 1R 2R 1R 2R 1R
German Masters[nb 5] A NR Tournament Not Held 1R 1R LQ SF
Welsh Open A A 3R LQ A LQ LQ QF 3R 1R 3R 1R QF 2R LQ LQ
World Open[nb 6] A A 1R LQ A 2R LQ 1R 1R 2R 2R F 1R LQ LQ 1R
Players Tour Championship Final Tournament Not Held DNQ DNQ DNQ
China Open[nb 7] NR A LQ LQ A Not Held 2R LQ LQ SF SF 2R 2R LQ LQ
World Championship LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R LQ 2R 1R QF QF 1R 1R QF LQ
Non-ranking tournaments
The Masters LQ A LQ LQ 1R LQ LQ A LQ LQ 1R 1R QF A A A A
Championship League Tournament Not Held SF RR RR 2R RR RR
Variant format tournaments
Shoot-Out Tournament Not Held 3R 3R 2R SF
Former ranking tournaments
Malta Grand Prix Non-ranking LQ NR Tournament Not Held
Thailand Masters A A LQ LQ A NR Not Held NR Tournament Not Held
Scottish Open[nb 8] A A 1R 2R A 1R 2R Tournament Not Held MR NH
British Open A A 1R LQ A LQ LQ 1R Tournament Not Held
Irish Masters Non-ranking Event 1R LQ LQ NH NR Tournament Not Held
Malta Cup[nb 9] NH A Not Held A LQ LQ 1R LQ F NR Tournament Not Held
Northern Ireland Trophy Tournament Not Held NR QF 3R 3R Tournament Not held
Bahrain Championship Tournament Not Held 2R Tournament Not Held
Former non-ranking tournaments
Wuxi Classic[nb 4] Tournament Not Held SF RR QF A Ranking
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.
  1. ↑ From the 2010/2011 season it shows the ranking at the beginning of the season.
  2. ↑ New players don't have a ranking.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 He was not on the Main Tour.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 The event was called the Jiangsu Classic (2008/2009–2009/2010)
  5. ↑ The event was called the German Open (1997/1998)
  6. ↑ The event was called the Grand Prix (1997/1998-2000/2001 and 2004/2005-2009/2010) and the LG Cup (2001/2002-2003/2004)
  7. ↑ The event was called the China International (1997/1998–1998/1999)
  8. ↑ The event was called the Players Championship (2003/2004)
  9. ↑ The event was called the Irish Open (1998/1999) and the European Open (2001/2002-2003/2004)

Career finals

Ranking event finals: 3 (3 runner-ups)

Legend
World Championship (0–0)
UK Championship (0–0)
Other (0–3)
Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score
Runner-up 1. 2007 Malta Cup England Murphy, ShaunShaun Murphy 4–9
Runner-up 2. 2007 Shanghai Masters Wales Dale, DominicDominic Dale 6–10
Runner-up 3. 2008 Grand Prix Scotland Higgins, JohnJohn Higgins 7–9

Non-ranking wins

Pro-am wins

  • Austrian Open – 2008

References

  1. ↑ Yahoo! Sport. 2009. Ryan Day. [Online] Eurosport UK (Updated 2010) Available at: http://uk.yahoo.eurosport.com/snooker/person_prs28970.shtml [Accessed 12 February 2010].
  2. ↑ "Chris Turner's Snooker Archive: Snooker's Top Century Makers". 2007. Archived from the original on 10 February 2013. Retrieved 2007-04-28. 
  3. ↑ "Ryan Day - Season 1997/1998". Retrieved 5 January 2013. 
  4. ↑ Harlow, Phil (2004-04-19). "Higgins wins thriller". BBC Sport. Retrieved 2008-07-13. 
  5. ↑ "Champion Higgins stunned by Day". BBC Sport. 2008-04-26. Retrieved 2008-07-13. 
  6. ↑ "Frustrated Ryan Day bemoans 'poor' year". BBC Sport. 2010-04-22. Retrieved 2010-08-22. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Ryan Day 2011/2012". Snooker.org. Retrieved 17 May 2012. 
  8. ↑ "Doherty edges out Hamilton to reach World Championship". Daily Mail. 15 April 2012. Retrieved 17 May 2012. 
  9. ↑ "World Snooker Championship 2012: Ryan Day stuns Ding". BBC Sport. 25 April 2012. Retrieved 17 May 2012. 
  10. ↑ "Snooker: Victory for Matthew Stevens". Wales Online. 3 May 2012. Retrieved 17 May 2012. 
  11. ↑ "Official World Ranking List for the 2012/2013 Season". Retrieved 17 May 2012. 
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 "Ryan Day 2012/2013". Snooker.org. Retrieved 24 May 2013. 
  13. ↑ "Ding Junhui crashes out of UK Snooker Championship against Ryan Day". The Press (York). Retrieved 24 May 2013. 
  14. ↑ "Mark Selby surges back from brink to keep UK Snooker title dream alive". The Press (York). Retrieved 24 May 2013. 
  15. ↑ "Order of Merit 2012/2013". Snooker.org. Retrieved 24 May 2013. 
  16. ↑ "Official World Snooker Ranking List For The 2013/2014 Season". World Snooker. Retrieved 24 May 2013. 
  17. ↑ Daily Mail, 2008. Top British snooker player ties the knot – with his aunt. [Online] Mail Online, News, 15 Jun. Available at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1026471/Top-British-snooker-player-ties-knot--aunt.html. [Accessed 3 April 2009].
  18. ↑ Coles, J., 2008. Snooker ace Ryan marries his auntie. [Online] The Sun, News, 14 Jun. Available at http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1290401.ece. [Accessed 3 April 2009].
  19. ↑ "Ranking History". Snooker.org. Retrieved 6 February 2011. 

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