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Fergal O'Brien

O'Brien at the 2016 Paul Hunter Classic
Born	(1972-03-08) 8 March 1972 (age 52) County Dublin, Ireland
Sport country	Ireland
Nickname	Fearless Fergal
Professional	1991–2024
Highest ranking	9 (2000/01)
Maximum breaks	1
Century breaks	240 (as of 15 December 2024)
Tournament wins
Ranking	1
World Champion	-

Fergal O'Brien (born 8 March 1972) is an Irish retired professional snooker player who competed on the World Snooker Tour from 1991 to 2024. He won one ranking title during his career, defeating Anthony Hamilton 9–7 in the final of the 1999 British Open. He was runner-up at the 2001 Masters, where he lost the final 9–10 to Paul Hunter. His best performance at the World Snooker Championship was reaching the quarter-finals of the 2000 event, where he lost 5–13 to eventual champion Mark Williams. He reached his highest world ranking of ninth in the 2000–01 season, but spent only three seasons of his 33-year career ranked inside the top 16. He retired from professional competition at the end of the 2023–24 season, intending to remain active in the sport as a coach and a commentator for Eurosport.

Career

O'Brien is the only player to score a century in their first frame at the World Championships in the Crucible, which he achieved against Alan McManus in 1994 (though he lost the match 10–7 and did not qualify again until 1998). His greatest achievement was winning the British Open in 1999, beating Anthony Hamilton 9–7 in the final. Hamilton opened with two centuries, but O'Brien won five frames on the final black to defeat the Nottingham man.

O'Brien also came close to winning the Masters title in 2001. After beating Mark Williams, Ken Doherty and Dave Harold, he lost in the final to Paul Hunter after leading 7–3. He has reached one further ranking final, and three semi-finals

O'Brien peaked at No. 9 in the rankings following his sole title, but nosedived after this. He narrowly retained his top 16 place for the 2001/2002 season, but dropped out a year later – and then out of the top 32 a year later. Three further falls down the rankings left him at No. 45, before beginning to recover.

O'Brien's best run at the World Championship is the quarter-final and 2005 he became the first player to beat John Parrott in a World Championship qualifier.

O'Brien started the 2007–08 campaign in Shanghai where he had beaten Paul Davies and Barry Hawkins in qualifying rounds, however, he lost to Steve Davis in the first round. O'Brien also qualified for the Grand Prix but lost four of his group matches to finish 5th in his group ahead of only Graeme Dott.

After qualifying for the main draw of the 2007 Northern Ireland Trophy by beating Barry Pinches in a deciding frame, O'Brien went on to beat Dave Harold in the first round of the main draw. Victories over John Higgins (in a decider), Barry Hawkins and Ronnie O'Sullivan, before he reached the second ranking-event final of his career by beating Mark Allen by 6 frames to 3. He lost the final to Stephen Maguire, 5–9. This run helped him return to the top 32 of the Snooker world rankings 2007/2008, but the early part of the 2008–09 season proved disappointing, O'Brien not reaching the last sixteen of any of the first four tournaments.

As of the end of 2009 O'Brien had compiled 101 competitive century breaks in his career.

He qualified for the Players Tour Championship 2011/2012 – Finals held in Galway but lost his Last 24 match 0–4 to Joe Perry.

On 12 April 2017, O’Brien qualified for the 2017 World Snooker Championship after a record-breaking victory in the final qualifying round match against David Gilbert. The final frame set the record for the longest frame of the modern era, lasting 123 minutes and 41 seconds.

Performance and rankings timeline

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. Players qualified One Year Ranking List started the season without ranking points
4. Players qualified through Q School started the season without ranking points
5. The event was called the European Open (1991/1992–1996/1997 and 2001/2002–2003/2004), the Irish Open (1998/1999) and the Malta Cup (2004/2005–2007/2008)
6. The event was called the International Open (1992/1993–1996/1997) and the Players Championship (2003/2004)
7. The event was called the German Open (1995/1996–1997/1998)
8. The event was called the Players Tour Championship Grand Finals (2010/2011–2015/2016)
9. The event was called the Grand Prix (1991/1992–2000/2001 and 2004/2005–2009/2010), the LG Cup (2001/2002–2003/2004) and the Haikou World Open (2011/2012–2013/2014)
10. The event was called the Strachan Challenge (1992/1993–1993/1994)
11. The event was called the Dubai Classic (1991/1992–1994/1995) and the Thailand Classic (1995/1996)
12. The event was called the Asian Open (1991/1992–1992/1993) and the Thailand Open (1993/1994–1996/1997)
13. The event was called the Jiangsu Classic (2008/2009–2009/2010)
14. The event was called the Australian Open (1994/1995–1995/1996) and the Australian Masters (1995/1996)
15. The event was called the Grand Prix Fürth (2004/2005) and the Fürth German Open (2005/2006–2006/2007)
16. The event was called the China International (1997/1998–1998/1999)
17. The event was called the Riga Open (2014/2015–2015/2016)
18. The event was called the Charity Challenge (1994/1995–1998/1999)

Career finals

Ranking finals: 2 (1 title)

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score
Winner	1.	1999	British Open	Anthony Hamilton	9–7
Runner-up	1.	2007	Northern Ireland Trophy	Stephen Maguire	5–9

Minor-ranking finals: 1

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score
Runner-up	1	2014	Gdynia Open	Shaun Murphy	1–4

Non-ranking finals: 9 (2 titles)

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score
Runner-up	1.	2001	The Masters	Paul Hunter	9–10
Runner-up	2.	2003	Irish Open	Joe Swail	3–10
Runner-up	3.	2007	Irish Professional Championship	Ken Doherty	2–9
Runner-up	4.	2007	Irish Classic	David Morris	3–5
Runner-up	5.	2008	Irish Classic (2)	Ken Doherty	2–5
Runner-up	6.	2009	Irish Classic (3)	Joe Swail	0–5
Winner	1.	2010	Irish Classic	Michael Judge	5–1
Winner	2.	2011	Irish Classic (2)	Ken Doherty	5–2
Runner-up	7.	2015	World Seniors Championship	Mark Williams	1–2

Team finals: 1

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Team	Opponent(s) in the final	Score
Runner-up	1.	1996	World Cup	Ireland	Scotland	7–10

References

1. "Fergal O'Brien". World Snooker Tour. Archived from the original on 22 September 2023. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
2. "Echo Sports Awards 2019: Ireland snooker great Fergal O'Brien receives 'Hall of Fame' accolade". echo.ie. Archived from the original on 12 June 2020. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
3. "Eurosport snooker pundit and former British Open champion Fergal O'Brien announces retirement at end of season". Eurosport. 2 January 2024. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
4. "Crucible Qualifying Day Two: Revesz Weathers The Storm". World Snooker Tour. 9 April 2024. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
5. "World Snooker Championship: Fergal O'Brien wins longest frame in snooker history to qualify". BBC. 13 April 2017. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
6. "Ranking History". Snooker.org. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
7. "Swail lifts Irish crown". BBC Sport. Retrieved 16 February 2020.

External links

• Official website at the Wayback Machine (archived 23 September 2021)
• Fergal O'Brien at the World Snooker Tour (archived)
• Fergal O'Brien at snooker.org

• 1972 births
• Irish snooker players
• Bayside, Dublin
• Living people