Ian McCulloch ( born Ian McCulloch , born July 28, 1971 ) is an English professional snooker player , finalist of the 2002 Open and Grand Prix of 2004 .
 Ian McCulloch | |
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| Date of Birth | July 28, 1971 (48 years) |
| Place of Birth | Preston , Lancashire , England |
| Citizenship | |
| Nickname | Preston's Pride |
| Professional career | 1992—2012 |
| Highest rating | Number 16 |
| Prize money | GB £ 608110, € 1600 A $ 500 [1] |
| Highest break | 145 ( British Open 2003 ) |
| Number of Century | 105 [2] |
| The best result in career | Finalist Grand Prix 2004 |
| Tournament Wins | |
| World Championship | 1/2 finals ( 2005 ) |
Content
Career
Although Ian McCulloch turned pro in 1992, he did not show significant results until the 1996/97 season. The first successes came to him in the open championship of Wales in 1997 , when he reached the stage 1/32. A little later, McCulloch hit the last-48 on the British Open. Thanks to these achievements, he rose in the ranking to 76th place, and this was a good performance, given that he could not even enter the first hundred before. The following season, he continued to progress and, despite the previous lack of impressive results, he rose another 16 lines in the world rankings.
In the 1998/99 season, McCarloch first qualified for the World Cup , which allowed him to get into the Top 48 snooker players.
Ian achieved his first truly outstanding result in the 1999/00 season's Wales Championship, when he reached the quarter-finals. However, the rest of the achievements of that season were not very good, and as a result, Ian became the 48th.
In the 2000/01 season, the Englishman, although he performed more stably, never passed the 1/16 final. In addition, he again did not qualify for the World Cup and took 43 position in the ranking.
In 2002 , at the British Open, Ian McCulloch demonstrated his best game of all-time appearances on the main tour and reached the final, where, however, he lost to Paul Hunter . And although in other competitions he did not go beyond 1 / 16th, this final ensured him a place in the Top 32 at the end of the season. The Englishman became the 25th, which now allowed him not to play qualifying matches for some tournaments of the next season.
But the best season for him was the 2004/05 season . In his native Preston , in front of his fans, he defeated Rod Lawler , Jimmy White , Stephen Hendry , Stephen Maguire and Michael Judge , before reaching the final of the rating tournament - Grand Prix for the second time. But in the final match, McCulloch again lost, this time to a more eminent opponent - Ronnie O'Sullivan , 5: 9. After this loss, the Englishman came in a slight decline in form, but this did not prevent him from achieving a better result at the World Cup semi-finals. Thanks to these excellent results, he is the first and so far the only time he entered the elite division Top 16. However, there was confusion in the distribution of places in the ranking, and as a result, Makkaloh had to play one rund of qualifications for most of the tournaments of the next season, although, according to the rules, all of the Top 16 participants were not supposed to play qualifications. This situation has developed because of the victory of "qualifai" Sean Murphy at the world championship. Murphy himself occupied the 48th line of the world ranking at that time, but the prize points earned by this victory were not enough for a place in the 16 strongest. Nevertheless, as the current world champion, Sean received automatic seeding under the second number in all tournaments of the new season. And 16th place Makkaloh was forced to play the last qualification round instead of Murphy. Perhaps it was because of this offensive circumstance that Ian could not show good results in the next season and now officially left the Top-16.
In the 2006/07 season, McCulloch had a chance to return to the top sixteen, however, despite the fact that in the 1/16 of the World Cup, he won the reigning champion, Graeme Dott [3] , he could not go even further and stayed in the Top 32.
Season 2007/08 for the Englishman began even more successfully. He was even 17th in the preliminary ranking, but could not hold this position until the end of the season and became the 28th. After that, his place in the ranking began to gradually decline, and by the season 2011/12 McCulloch was already 63rd [4] .
Career Achievements
- World Cup semi-finals - 2005
- Grand Prix Finalist - 2004
- British Open finalist 2002
Game Style
Ian McCulloch is distinguished by his solid approach to the game. He almost never makes quick and risky decisions, and sometimes he takes too much time to strike. Nevertheless, he is quite a serial snooker player: he already has more than one hundred century-breaks in his account, and the Englishman made the highest break - 145 points at the 2003 British Open .
See also
- List of snooker players who made 100 or more century breaks
Notes
- ↑ Ian McCulloch - Season 2011/2012 . CueTracker - Snooker Database. Circulation date July 24, 2013. Archived October 1, 2013.
- ↑ Centuries . Pro Snooker Blog. The appeal date is July 5, 2015.
- ↑ Report on the first day of the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield RuSnooker, April 24, 2007 . Link dated January 6, 2009
- ↑ World Ranking (not available link) . The appeal date is May 14, 2011. Archived May 4, 2011.
Links
- World Snooker Profile (English)
- Short biography on Top-Snooker (rus.)