Alan McManus

This article is about the snooker player. For the professional footballer, see Allan McManus.
Alan McManus

Alan McManus at the 2014 German Masters
Born 21 January 1971
Sport country  Scotland
Nickname Angles
Professional 1990–
Highest ranking 6 (4 years)
Current ranking 23 (as of 6 April 2015)
Career winnings £2,376,509[1]
Highest break 143 (1994 World Snooker Championship)
Century breaks 184[2]
Tournament wins
Ranking 2
Non-ranking 2

Alan McManus (born 21 January 1971) is a Scottish professional snooker player. A mainstay in the world's top 16 during the 1990s and 2000s, McManus has won two ranking events, the 1994 Dubai Classic and the 1996 Thailand Open, and was a world semi-finalist in 1992 and 1993. He also won the 1994 Masters, ending Stephen Hendry's five-year, 23 match unbeaten streak at the tournament with a 9–8 victory in the final.

Career

McManus has long been considered a consistently good player as his record of sixteen consecutive seasons in the Top 16 testifies, but never managed to achieve the success of his contemporaries such as Stephen Hendry, Ken Doherty, Ronnie O'Sullivan and John Higgins. He was ranked in the Top 16 from 1990 to 2006, dropping out after an unsuccessful 2005/2006 season. His highest ranking was sixth (in 1993/94 and 1996/97). He has reached twenty-one professional semi-finals, but won only four events. He has reached the semi-finals of the World Championship twice, but has never appeared in a final. Until 2005 he had gone eleven years without reaching the quarter-finals of the tournament, despite consistent achievements in other events.

The highlight of his career to date was claiming the Masters title at Wembley in 1994, defeating Stephen Hendry 9–8 in the final to end Hendry's unbeaten run in the tournament, which dated back to 1989.

His last major final was at the 2002 LG Cup at the Guild Hall in Preston when he lost 9-5 to countryman Chris Small.

A series of poor results in the 2005–2006 season saw him drop out of the top 16 for the first time since 1991. He reached the semi finals of the 2006 Snooker Grand Prix, losing to Neil Robertson. He lost a World Championship qualifier 10–9 to journeyman Joe Delaney in 2007. This loss begun an extremely quiet six to seven year period for the Scot, who then failed to qualify for any UK or World Championships between 2007 and 2013, and also had severe struggles qualifying for the other ranking events. This saw him quickly drop out the top 16 and 32. His poor form peaked in the 2009/2010 season where he failed to qualify for any of the main stages of the tournaments he took part in.

McManus was unable to qualify for any of the major venues during the 2011/12 season and he finished it ranked No 52 in the world.

McManus made a good start to the 2012/2013 Season, beating Tony Drago and Robert Milkins to qualify for the final stages of the Australian Goldfields Open in Bendigo, there he beat local wildcard James Mifsud 5-0, before exiting the tournament by the same scoreline against Ding Junhui.[3]

At the 2013 Welsh Open, McManus made his first quarter final since the 2006 Grand Prix with a 4-2 win over the number 16 seed Barry Hawkins, followed by a superb comeback to beat Joe Perry 4-3, after trailing 0-3.[4] In the quarter-final he lost to compatriot Stephen Maguire by 3 frames to 5.[5] The following tournament, the Haikou World Open saw McManus win 3 matches in qualifying to reach the latter stages of the tournament, he then beat local wildcard Lin Shuai 5-3, before facing compatriot John Higgins, McManus put in a good performance but ultimately lost 5-3, but picked up valuable ranking points in the process.

McManus made a good start to the Players Tour Championship, reaching the quarter-finals of the first event, losing to Andrew Higginson by 4 frames to 3. He carried this good form to the PTC event 2, once again reaching the quarter-finals before losing 4-1 to eventual runner up Stephen Maguire. However, he only managed four last 32 results from the rest of the events. This led to him being ranked 31st in the Order of Merit, just missing out on the top 28 players that qualified for the finals

At the 2013 World Snooker Championship, McManus, in qualifying, beat one of India's rising stars Aditya Mehta 10-9, in an epic encounter that lasted just over 9 hours.[6] He then defeated 1995 World finalist Nigel Bond 10-8 in the penultimate qualifying round. In the final qualifying round he led Tom Ford 5-4 after the first session, he then reeled off 5 of the next 6 frames of the second session to book his place at the crucible for the first time since 2006. At the venue, he lost to Ding Junhui 5-10, picking up £12,000 for his efforts.

An example of McManus's consistency as a snooker player is shown in the fact that his first whitewash of his professional career came in his 0-5 defeat to Peter Ebdon at the 1998 Grand Prix, his 312th match as a professional player.[7]

Alan McManus (2013).

McManus earned £49,442 during the 2012/2013 Season.[8]

At the start of the 2013/2014 Season, McManus was ranked 49th in the World Rankings. At the 2013 Wuxi Classic qualifiers, he won his qualifying match 5-3 against Daryl Hill, to qualify for the Last 64 of the event held in Wuxi. At the venue, he defeated Ken Doherty 5-3, before losing to Dave Gilbert 2-5. At the first Asian Tour event, he defeated players such as Michael White, before beating local favorite Ding Junhui 4-2 in the Last 16. He then defeated Yu Delu 4-1 in the quarter-finals, in the semi-final, he lost to eventual winner Joe Perry 2-4, despite being 2-1 up.

McManus qualified for the inaugural Indian Open, beating amateur Sydney Wilson 4-1 in qualifying. He was then beaten 1-4 in the Last 64 by Zhang Anda. McManus followed up this result by qualifying for the International Championship by beating Darren Cook 6-0. He then defeated local wildcard Zhou Yuelong 6-5, coming back from 2-4 down. In the Last 64 he produced the shock of the tournament by beating defending champion Judd Trump 6-5, after being 3-4 down.[9] However, he was defeated 4-6 by Ryan Day in the following round. At the UK Championship, McManus defeated Joel Walker 6-5, winning the match on a respotted black, before losing to Michael Holt 4-6 in the Last 64. McManus reached the Last 16 of the German Masters, defeating Jak Jones 5-1 in qualifying. At the Tempodrom he defeated Peter Ebdon and Jack Lisowski, both by 5-2 scorelines before losing 2-5 against Michael Holt.

McManus continued his good form into the final European Tour event of the season, where he reached the last 16 by defeating players such as Neil Robertson and Graeme Dott before losing to Fergal O'Brien. Despite also reaching the last 16 of the final Asian Tour Event of the season, McManus narrowly missed out on qualification for the Players Championship Grand Final by one place. McManus lost to Mark King in the second round of the Welsh Open and failed to qualify for the China Open, but was to finish the season strongly. He reached the Quarter Final of the World Open losing to Mark Selby. He then enjoyed a run to the Quarter Final of the 2014 World Snooker Championship beating John Higgins 10-7 and then Ken Doherty 13-8 to set up another Quarter Final with Mark Selby. McManus performed well early on in the match but Selby was to run away with the match in the second session to leave McManus trailing 4-12. McManus was able to claw back the first frame of the final session but Selby won the next frame to win the match 13-5.

McManus continued his good form into the 2014/2015 season by reaching the last 16 of the first ranking event of the season, the 2014 Wuxi Classic, where he was beaten 5–2 by Barry Hawkins. He then reached the last 16 of the Australian Goldfields Open, before losing 5–3 to Judd Trump.[10] McManus reached the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters by beating Jamie Jones to qualify, before defeating Ronnie O'Sullivan 5–3 and Stephen Maguire 5–1 but then lost to the eventual winner of the tournament Stuart Bingham 5–1.[11][12] McManus was able to keep up his 100% record in qualifying matches for the season by comfortably defeating Michael Georgiou to qualify for the International Championship, but was edged out by Anthony McGill in last 64 of the tournament. McManus lost in the first round of the UK Championship to Joel Walker.[10] He won his first qualifier for the 2015 German Masters against Zak Surety but was then defeated in the final qualifying round by Matthew Selt. McManus had a good run in Welsh Open reaching the last 16 before losing to Maguire. He performed well in the season's European Tour Events, finishing 18th on the Order of Merit. He played in four of the six events, reaching one quarter-final with a further three last 16 appearances.[13] This gave him entry into the Grand Final where he was defeated 4–1 by Bingham in the first round.[10] An inconsistent performance against Ali Carter at the World Championship saw McManus bow out 10–5 in the first round.[14]

Performance and rankings timeline

Tournament 1990/
91		 1991/
92		 1992/
93		 1993/
94		 1994/
95		 1995/
96		 1996/
97		 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		 2014/
15
Ranking[15][nb 1] UR[nb 2] 41 13 6 6 6 6 10 8 8 8 12 15 10 10 12 19 38 37 41 46 51 52 49 29
Ranking tournaments
Wuxi Classic[nb 3] Not held Non-ranking LQ 2R 3R
Australian Goldfields Open[nb 4] Not held NR Not held LQ 1R LQ 2R
Shanghai Masters Not Held LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ QF
International Championship Not Held LQ 2R 1R
UK Championship SF LQ SF 1R 1R 1R SF QF 1R 3R 6R 3R 3R 3R 3R 2R 3R LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ 2R 1R
German Masters[nb 5] Not Held SF LQ LQ NR Not Held LQ LQ LQ 3R LQ
Welsh Open NH 2R F F 2R 2R 1R QF 3R 1R QF 1R 2R QF 2R 2R 2R 2R LQ LQ LQ LQ QF 2R 4R
Indian Open Not Held 1R 1R
Players Championship Grand Final[nb 6] Not Held DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ 1R
China Open[nb 7] Not Held NR SF LQ QF 1R Not Held SF 1R LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R
World Championship 2R SF SF 2R 2R 2R 2R 2R 2R 2R 1R 1R 2R 2R QF 1R LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R QF
Non-ranking tournaments
The Masters 1R LQ SF W QF SF 1R 1R SF 1R 1R SF 1R 1R 1R SF A A A A A A A A A
World Seniors Championship NH A Not Held A A A A LQ
World Grand Prix Not Held 1R
Variant format tournaments
Snooker Shoot-Out[nb 8] SF Not Held 2R 1R 2R 3R 1R
Former ranking tournaments
Classic 3R QF Not Held
Strachan Open[nb 9] NH 1R MR NR Not Held
Dubai Classic[nb 10] 1R LQ SF SF W 2R SF Not Held
Malta Grand Prix Not Held Non-ranking 2R NR Not Held
Thailand Masters[nb 11] LQ F 3R SF 2R W 1R QF F LQ 1R 2R NR Not Held NR Not Held
Scottish Open[nb 12] Not Held QF SF QF 1R QF 2R QF 4R QF 2R QF 3R Not Held MR Not Held
British Open 1R 1R 2R QF 2R 3R QF 3R 2R QF SF QF QF 2R 2R Not Held
Irish Masters Non-Ranking Event 1R 1R 2R NH NR Not Held
Malta Cup[nb 13] LQ 1R 1R QF 2R 1R QF NH F Not Held 2R 1R 1R QF 2R LQ NR Not Held
Northern Ireland Trophy Not Held NR 1R 1R 3R Not Held
Bahrain Championship Not held LQ Not held
World Open[nb 14] 1R SF SF 3R 3R SF 1R 4R 3R 4R 3R 3R F 2R 2R 1R SF LQ LQ LQ 2R LQ 1R QF NH
Former non-ranking tournaments
World Matchplay A A SF Not Held
German Masters[nb 5] Not Held Ranking Event QF Not Held Ranking Event
Champions Cup[nb 15] Not Held SF 1R SF A QF A A A Not Held
Scottish Masters A 1R 1R F 1R 1R F F 1R 1R QF LQ LQ Not Held
Northern Ireland Trophy Not Held SF Ranking Event Not Held
Irish Masters A A F F 1R 1R 1R A 1R QF QF A Ranking Event NH A Not Held
Premier League[nb 16] A A F SF RR A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A Not held
Performance Table Legend
LQ lost in the qualifying draw #R lost in the early rounds of the tournament
(WR = Wildcard round, RR = Round robin)		 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
DQ disqualified from the tournament
NH / Not Held event was not held.
NR / Non-Ranking Event event is/was no longer a ranking event.
R / Ranking Event event is/was a ranking event.
MR / Minor-Ranking Event 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 on the Main Tour don't have a ranking.
  3. ↑ The event run under different name as Jiangsu Classic (2008/2009–2009/2010)
  4. ↑ The event run under different names as Australian Open (1994/1995) and Australian Masters (1995/1996)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 The event run under different name as German Open (1995/1996–1997/1998)
  6. ↑ The event run under different name as Players Tour Championship Grand Finals (2010/2011–2012/2013)
  7. ↑ The event run under different name as China International (1997/1998–1998/1999)
  8. ↑ The event run under different name as Shoot-Out (1990/1991)
  9. ↑ The event run under different name as Strachan Challenge (1992/1993–1993/1994)
  10. ↑ The event run under different names as Thailand Classic (1995/1996) and Asian Classic (1996/1997)
  11. ↑ The event run under different names as Asian Open (1990/1991–1992/1993) and Thailand Open (1993/1994–1996/97)
  12. ↑ The event run under different names as International Open (1992/1993–1996/1997) and Players Championship (2003/2004)
  13. ↑ The event run under different names as European Open (1990/1991–1996/1997 and 2001/2002–2003/2004) and Irish Open (1998/1999)
  14. ↑ The event run under different names as Grand Prix (1990/1991–2000/2001 and 2004/2005–2009/2010) and LG Cup (2001/2002–2003/2004)
  15. ↑ The event run under different name as Charity Challenge (1994/1995–1998/1999)
  16. ↑ The event run under different names as Matchroom League (1990/1991–1991/1992) and European League (1992/1993–1996/1997)

Career finals

Ranking event finals: 8 (2 titles, 6 runner-ups)

Legend
World Championship (0–0)
UK Championship (0–0)
Other (2–6)
Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score
Runner-up 1. 1992 Asian Open England Davis, SteveSteve Davis 3–9
Runner-up 2. 1993 Welsh Open Republic of Ireland Doherty, KenKen Doherty 7–9
Runner-up 3. 1994 Welsh Open (2) England Davis, SteveSteve Davis 6–9
Winner 1. 1994 Dubai Classic England Ebdon, PeterPeter Ebdon 9–6
Winner 2. 1996 Thailand Open Republic of Ireland Doherty, KenKen Doherty 9–8
Runner-up 4. 1998 Irish Open Wales Williams, MarkMark Williams 4–9
Runner-up 5. 1999 Thailand Masters Wales Williams, MarkMark Williams 7–9
Runner-up 6. 2002 LG Cup Scotland Small, ChrisChris Small 5–9

Non-ranking wins: (2)

Team tournaments

References

External links

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