Tom Ford (snooker player)

Tom Ford
Born 17 August 1983
Glen Parva, Leicestershire
Sport country  England
Professional 2001–
Highest ranking 21 (Aug–Sep 2013)[1]
Current ranking 63 (as of 6 April 2015)
Career winnings £432,414[2]
Highest break 147 (x2)
Century breaks 144[3]
Best ranking finish Semi-final (2013 PTC Finals)
Tournament wins
Minor-ranking 2

Tom Ford (born 17 August 1983 in Glen Parva, Leicestershire) is an English professional snooker player from the Midlands.

Career

Early years

As a junior, he played against Mark Selby frequently. Ford began his professional career by playing Challenge Tour in 2001, at the time the second-level professional tour.[4] His first quarter-final came at the 2005 Malta Cup where he beat Ken Doherty, but eventually lost to Stephen Hendry. In the 2007 Grand Prix, he made a 147 against Steve Davis, after having just come out of hospital suffering from gastroenteritis,[5] but still missed out on the last 16 eventually finishing 3rd in his group. He secured the high break and maximum prize, but it was not televised. In the last 32 of the 2007 Northern Ireland Trophy he held Ronnie O'Sullivan to 4–4, before missing the final blue, allowing O'Sullivan clinch the frame. Ford made his World Championship debut in 2010, after beating Judd Trump 10–3 in the final qualifying round. He played Mark Allen in the first round, where he lost 10–4.

2010/2011

Early in the season Ford won his first professional title, Event 3 of the Players Tour Championship, beating Jack Lisowski 4–0 in the final.[6] Ford failed to qualify for the main draws of both the Shanghai Masters and the World Open, but did beat Tony Drago and Gerard Greene to reach the Last 32 of the UK Championship. He was drawn against Mark Allen and lost 9-5.[7] Ford did not qualify for the final stages of any other ranking event for the season after losing 10-8 to Liu Chuang in Round 4 of qualifying for the World Championship.[8]

2011/2012

The first world ranking event of the season was the inaugural Australian Goldfields Open where Ford reached the final stages by beating Gerard Greene. He then beat world number 15 Jamie Cope 5–3 before being whitewashed 0–5 by eventual winner Stuart Bingham in the last 16.[9] He made it through to his third successive UK Championship main draw where he played former world champion Neil Robertson, but was comfortably beaten 1–6.[10] Ford won his second PTC title at Event 11 in December by defeating Martin Gould 4–3.[11] He finished twelfth in the Order of Merit to qualify for the 2012 Finals,[12] where he lost to Mark Davis 1–4 in the last 24.[13] He then qualified for the wildcard round of the German Masters with a 5–0 whitewash of Anthony Hamilton and beat Irishman Philip Arnold 5–1 to reach the last 32, where he met Mark Allen. Ford held a 3–0 lead, but went on to lose the match 4–5.[14] He qualified for the Welsh Open and beat Graeme Dott 4–2 in the opening round, before losing to Stephen Lee 1–4. Ford also reached the second round of the World Open, thanks to the withdrawal of Ronnie O'Sullivan, but exited the tournament in a final frame decider versus Mark King.[13] He then lost to Lee again, this time in the first round of the China Open, before failing to qualify for the World Championship after being edged out 9–10 by Cao Yupeng.[15] Ford finished the season ranked world number 26, meaning he had risen eight places during the year.[16]

2012/2013

Ford qualified for six ranking events during the 2012/2013 season. Out of those he lost in the first round in three and in the second round of both the Australian Goldfields Open and Welsh Open to Shaun Murphy 1–5 and Ken Doherty 3–4 respectively.[17] He couldn't qualify for the Players Tour Championship Finals through the Order of Merit as he finished 46th, but he did play in all three of the new Asian PTC's.[18] His best result came in the Third Event, where he lost 3–4 in the semi-finals to Stuart Bingham.[17] Ford finished sixth on the Asian Order of Merit, inside the top eight who qualified for the Finals.[19] It was at the Finals that Ford had his best run in a ranking event of his career. He saw off Martin Gould 4–2, Jack Lisowski 4–3 and Marco Fu 4–1 to advance to the semi-finals.[17] His nerves showed early on against Neil Robertson as he fell 0–3 down, but composed himself to level at 3–3. Ford had three chances to win the deciding frame, but left Robertson a chance when escaping a snooker to lose 3–4.[20] Ford ended the season ranked world number 24.[21]

2013/2014

At the 2013 Australian Goldfields Open Ford reached the quarter-finals of a ranking event for the third time in his career by beating Ryan Day and Barry Hawkins, before losing 5–3 to Robert Milkins.[22] He won through to the second round of both the Indian Open and Welsh Open but was eliminated by Stephen Maguire and James Wattana respectively.[22] Ford defeated James Cahill 10–6, Luca Brecel 10–1 and Matthew Stevens 10–8 to qualify for the World Championship for the second time.[23] He rallied from 6–2 down in the first round against Judd Trump to level at 8–8, before losing two successive frames to exit the tournament.[24]

2014/2015

Ford qualified for the Australian Goldfields Open for the fourth year in a row and lost 5–3 to John Higgins in the first round.[25] He had five defeats in a row after this until beating Barry Pinches 6–4 in the opening round of the UK Championship, his first win in the event after six prior losses.[26] Ford was beaten 6–3 by Joel Walker in the second round. He had a resurgence of form at the Asian Tour event, the Xuzhou Open by knocking out five players to reach the semi-finals, where he lost the last two frames in a 4–3 defeat to Joe Perry.[25] Ford entered the qualifying rounds of the World Championship needing wins to ensure his survival on the tour as he was close to ending the season outside the top 64 in the world rankings. He did so by seeing off Andrew Norman 10–2 and David Gilbert 10–8 to meet Matthew Selt in the final round, where he lost 10–8.[27]

Performance and rankings timeline

Tournament 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[28][nb 1] UR[nb 2][nb 3] UR UR[nb 3] UR 74 51 44 50 48 49 41 34 26 24 32
Ranking tournaments
Wuxi Classic[nb 4] Not held Non-ranking 1R LQ LQ
Australian Goldfields Open Not held 2R 2R QF 1R
Shanghai Masters Not held LQ 1R LQ LQ LQ 1R LQ LQ
International Championship Not held LQ LQ LQ
UK Championship A LQ A LQ 1R LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R 1R 1R 1R 1R 2R
German Masters Not held LQ 1R LQ 1R LQ
Welsh Open A LQ A LQ 1R LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R LQ 2R 2R 2R 1R
Indian Open Not Held 2R 1R
Players Championship Grand Final[nb 5] Not held 1R 1R SF DNQ DNQ
China Open A LQ A A 1R LQ WR LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R LQ LQ LQ
World Championship LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R LQ LQ LQ 1R LQ
Non-ranking tournaments
The Masters A LQ LQ LQ A LQ LQ LQ A WD A A A A A
Championship League Not held A A A A RR RR RR A
Variant format tournaments
Six-red World Championship[nb 6] Not held 1R A A NH 2R A A
Shoot-Out Not held 2R SF 1R 2R 3R
Former ranking tournaments
Thailand Masters A LQ NR Not held NR Not held
Scottish Open[nb 7] A LQ A LQ Not held MR Not held
British Open A LQ A 2R LQ Not held
Irish Masters Non-ranking A LQ LQ NH NR Not held
Malta Cup[nb 8] NH LQ A LQ QF LQ 2R NR Not held
Northern Ireland Trophy Not held NR LQ 2R LQ Not held
Bahrain Championship Not held LQ Not held
World Open[nb 9] A LQ A LQ LQ 1R RR RR LQ LQ LQ 2R LQ 1R NH
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
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 He was not on the Main Tour.
  4. ↑ The event ran under the name Jiangsu Classic (2008/2009–2009/2010)
  5. ↑ The event was called the Players Tour Championship Grand Finals (2010/2011–2012/2013)
  6. ↑ The event was called the Six-red Snooker International (2008/2009) and the Six-red World Grand Prix (2009/2010)
  7. ↑ The event was called the Players Championship (2003/2004)
  8. ↑ The event was called the European Open (2001/2002–2003/2004)
  9. ↑ The event was called the Grand Prix (2000/2001 and 2004/2005–2009/2010) and the LG Cup (2001/2002–2003/2004)

Career finals

Minor-ranking finals: 2 (2 titles)

Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score
Winner 1. 2010 Players Tour Championship – Event 3 England Jack Lisowski 4–0
Winner 2. 2011 Players Tour Championship – Event 11 England Martin Gould 4–3

Pro-am wins

References

  1. ↑ "World Rankings after the Paul Hunter Classic (ET4) 2013" (PDF). worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. 27 August 2013. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
  2. ↑ "Career-total Statistics for Tom Ford - Professional". CueTracker Snooker Results & Statistics Database. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  3. ↑ "Centuries". Pro Snooker Blog. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  4. ↑ "Tom Ford - Season 2000/2001". Retrieved 5 January 2013.
  5. ↑ "Ford leaves hospital and hits 147". BBC. 2007-10-14. Retrieved 2008-02-07.
  6. ↑ "Focused Tom Ford wins first professional title". BBC Sport. 2010-08-13. Retrieved 2010-08-13.
  7. ↑ "UK Championship scores". BBC Sport. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
  8. ↑ "Tom Ford vs. Liu Chuang". Retrieved December 4, 2011.
  9. ↑ "2011 Australian Goldfields Open". Retrieved December 4, 2011.
  10. ↑ "UK Championship 2011 scores". Retrieved December 4, 2011.
  11. ↑ "Ford beats Gould in PTC 11 final". Yahoo! News. Retrieved December 20, 2011.
  12. ↑ "PTC Order of Merit after PTC12" (PDF). worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Retrieved 29 December 2011.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Tom Ford 2011/2012". Snooker.org. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
  14. ↑ "Mark Allen fights back for German Masters win over Tom Ford". BBC Sport. 2 February 2012. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
  15. ↑ "Chinese duo qualify for Crucible". Eurosport. 15 April 2012. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
  16. ↑ "Official World Ranking List for the 2012/2013 Season" (PDF). Retrieved 12 May 2012.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 "Tom Ford 2012/2013". Snooker.org. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
  18. ↑ "Order of Merit 2012/2013". Snooker.org. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
  19. ↑ "Asian Order of Merit after APTC3" (PDF). worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
  20. ↑ "Robertson Survives Ford Fight-Back". World Snooker. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
  21. ↑ "Official World Snooker Ranking List For The 2013/2014 Season" (PDF). World Snooker. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 "Tom Ford 2013/2014". Snooker.org. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  23. ↑ "Welsh snooker stars Mark Williams and Matthew Stevens miss out on World Championships". Wales Online. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  24. ↑ "World Snooker Championship: Judd Trump survives fightback from Tom Ford". Sky Sports. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 "Tom Ford 2014/2015". Snooker.org. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
  26. ↑ "UK Championship snooker: Leicester's Tom Ford beats Barry Pinches in first round at York". Leicester Mercury. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
  27. ↑ "Snooker: Mark Selby to open World Championship title defence against Norway's Kurt Maflin". Leicester Mercury. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
  28. ↑ "Ranking History". Snooker.org. Retrieved 6 February 2011.

External links