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Tom Ford (snooker player)

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Tom Ford
Ford at the 2016 Paul Hunter Classic
Born (1983-08-17) 17 August 1983 (age 41)
Leicester, England
Sport country England
Professional2001–02, 2003–present
Highest ranking13 (May 2024)
Current ranking 22 (as of 2 December 2024)
Maximum breaks5
Century breaks294 (as of 1 December 2024)
Best ranking finishRunner-up (x3)
Tournament wins
Minor-ranking2

Tom Ford (born 17 August 1983) is an English professional snooker player from Leicester. Ford has reached three ranking finals - the 2016 Paul Hunter Classic, the 2023 German Masters and the 2023 International Championship - plus seven further ranking semi-finals.

Ford has compiled five maximum breaks in competitive play, and over 250 century breaks.

Career

[edit]

Early years

[edit]

As a junior, Ford played against Mark Selby frequently. He began his professional career by playing the Challenge Tour in 2001, at the time the second-level professional tour. 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,[1] but still missed out on the last 16, eventually finishing 3rd in his group. He secured the high break and maximum prize, but this event 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 to 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 4–10.

2010/2011

[edit]

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 while working with sports mentor Matt Andrews.[2] 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 5–9.[3] Ford did not qualify for the final stages of any other ranking event for the season after losing 8–10 to Liu Chuang in Round 4 of qualifying for the World Championship.[4]

2011/2012

[edit]

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.[5] 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.[6] Ford won his second PTC title at Event 11 in December by defeating Martin Gould 4–3.[7] He finished twelfth in the Order of Merit to qualify for the 2012 Finals,[8] where he lost to Mark Davis 1–4 in the last 24.[9] 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.[10] 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.[9] 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.[11] Ford finished the season ranked world number 26, meaning he had risen eight places during the year.[12]

2012/2013

[edit]

Ford qualified for six ranking events during the 2012–13 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.[13] 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.[14] His best result came in the Third Event, where he lost 3–4 in the semi-finals to Stuart Bingham.[13] Ford finished sixth on the Asian Order of Merit, inside the top eight who qualified for the Finals.[15] 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.[13] 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.[16] Ford ended the season ranked world number 24.[17]

2013/2014

[edit]

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 3–5 to Robert Milkins.[18] 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.[18] 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.[19] 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.[20]

2014/2015

[edit]

Ford qualified for the Australian Goldfields Open for the fourth year in a row and lost 3–5 to John Higgins in the first round.[21] 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.[22] Ford was beaten 3–6 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 3–4 defeat to Joe Perry.[21] 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 8–10.[23] Ford ended up 59th in the world rankings, a drop of 27 places during the year.[24]

2015/2016

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Ford began the 2015–16 season by reaching the third final carrying ranking points of his career after overcoming the likes of Joe Perry, Matthew Selt and Ben Woollaston at the Riga Open. Ford won the first frame against Barry Hawkins, but could not capture another to be beaten 1–4.[25] At the UK Championship, he defeated Scott Donaldson 6–1 and then beat Mark Williams for the first time by recovering from 3–5 down to win 6–5.[26] He followed that up by easing past Kyren Wilson 6–1, but accused his opponent Liang Wenbo of boring him off the table in the fourth round after it was Ford who lost 5–6 having been 5–3 up.[27][28] Ford failed to build upon this during the rest of the season as he could not get beyond the second round of any ranking event.[29] However, he was able to build on his world ranking to finish as the world number 43, an increase of 16 spots during the year.[30]

2016/2017

[edit]

A 4–1 victory over Jamie Jones at the Paul Hunter Classic saw Ford reach the second ranking event semi-final of his career and he beat Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4–2, closing the match with a 136 break.[31] In Ford's first ranking event final he was 2–2 with Mark Selby, before his fellow Leicester player knocked in two 50 plus breaks to defeat Ford 4–2.[32] At the English Open he beat Rory McLeod, Marco Fu and Joe Swail all by 4–2 scorelines, before losing 1–4 to John Higgins. Ford qualified for the German Masters by ousting Judd Trump 5–1 and then made a 147 in a first round 5–2 win over Peter Ebdon.[33] He saw off Mark King 5–2, but then lost 2–5 to Ali Carter in the quarter-finals.[31] Ford qualified for his third World Championship courtesy of victories over Jamie Bodle, Chris Wakelin and Hossein Vafaei.[34] From holding a narrow 2–1 advantage over Barry Hawkins in the first round, Ford was eliminated 3–10.[35]

Performance and rankings timeline

[edit]
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 		2015/
16 		2016/
17 		2017/
18 		2018/
19 		2019/
20 		2020/
21 		2021/
22 		2022/
23 		2023/
24 		2024/
25
Ranking[36][nb 1] [nb 2] [nb 3] [nb 2] [nb 3] 74 51 44 50 48 49 41 34 26 24 32 59 43 33 32 27 24 22 30 22 13
Ranking tournaments
Championship League Tournament Not Held Non-Ranking Event 2R 3R RR A WD
Xi'an Grand Prix Tournament Not Held 1R
Saudi Arabia Masters Tournament Not Held 5R
English Open Tournament Not Held 4R 2R 1R SF 3R 2R LQ 1R 1R
British Open A LQ A 2R LQ Tournament Not Held 1R LQ QF LQ
Wuhan Open Tournament Not Held QF LQ
Northern Ireland Open Tournament Not Held 2R 2R 3R 1R 2R WD 3R 1R 2R
International Championship Tournament Not Held LQ LQ LQ 1R 2R 2R 2R QF Not Held F LQ
UK Championship A LQ A LQ 1R LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R 1R 1R 1R 1R 2R 4R 1R 2R SF 1R 1R 2R SF 2R LQ
Shoot Out Tournament Not Held Non-Ranking Event 1R 4R 2R 1R 1R 1R QF 1R
Scottish Open[nb 4] A LQ A LQ Tournament Not Held MR Not Held 1R 4R 1R 3R 2R 2R LQ QF
German Masters Tournament Not Held LQ 1R LQ 1R LQ A QF 1R LQ 1R SF 2R F 3R
Welsh Open A LQ A LQ 1R LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R LQ 2R 2R 2R 1R 2R 1R 2R 2R 2R QF LQ LQ 3R
World Open[nb 5] A LQ A LQ LQ 1R RR RR LQ LQ LQ 2R LQ 1R Not Held 2R 1R 1R LQ Not Held 1R
World Grand Prix Tournament Not Held NR 2R 1R DNQ 2R SF DNQ QF 1R 2R
Players Championship[nb 6] Tournament Not Held 1R 1R SF DNQ DNQ 1R DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ 1R 1R
Tour Championship Tournament Not Held DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ 1R
World Championship LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R LQ LQ LQ 1R LQ LQ 1R LQ LQ 1R LQ LQ LQ 2R
Non-ranking tournaments
Shanghai Masters Tournament Not Held Ranking Event A A Not Held A 1R
The Masters A LQ LQ LQ A LQ LQ LQ A WD A A A A A A A A A A A A A A
Championship League Tournament Not Held A A A A RR RR RR A A A RR RR RR 2R RR RR RR RR
Former ranking tournaments
Thailand Masters A LQ NR Not Held NR Tournament Not Held
Irish Masters Non-Ranking A LQ LQ NH NR Tournament Not Held
Northern Ireland Trophy Tournament Not Held NR LQ 2R LQ Tournament Not Held
Bahrain Championship Tournament Not Held LQ Tournament Not Held
Wuxi Classic[nb 7] Tournament Not Held Non-Ranking Event 1R LQ LQ Tournament Not Held
Australian Goldfields Open Tournament Not Held 2R 2R QF 1R LQ Tournament Not Held
Shanghai Masters Tournament Not Held LQ 1R LQ LQ LQ 1R LQ LQ 1R LQ 1R Non-Ranking Not Held Non-Ranking
Paul Hunter Classic[nb 8] Tournament Not Held Pro-am Event Minor-Ranking Event F 4R 3R NR Tournament Not Held
Indian Open Tournament Not Held 2R 1R NH LQ 1R 1R Tournament Not Held
China Open A LQ A A 1R LQ WR LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R LQ LQ LQ 1R LQ QF LQ Tournament Not Held
Riga Masters[nb 9] Tournament Not Held Minor-Rank 1R 1R LQ 2R Tournament Not Held
China Championship Tournament Not Held NR 3R 2R 1R Tournament Not Held
WST Pro Series Tournament Not Held RR Tournament Not Held
Turkish Masters Tournament Not Held 2R Not Held
Gibraltar Open Tournament Not Held MR 2R 2R 2R 4R 3R 4R Not Held
WST Classic Tournament Not Held 1R Not Held
European Masters[nb 10] NH LQ A LQ QF LQ 2R NR Tournament Not Held 2R LQ LQ LQ 4R QF LQ 2R NH
Former non-ranking tournaments
Masters Qualifying Event[nb 11] A LQ LQ LQ NH 1R 2R 1R A 1R Tournament Not Held
General Cup[nb 12] Tournament Not Held A Tournament Not Held A NH RR A A A A Tournament Not Held
Shoot Out Tournament Not Held 2R SF 1R 2R 3R 2R Ranking Event
Six-red World Championship[nb 13] Tournament Not Held 2R A A NH 3R A A A A RR QF A Not Held SF Not Held
Haining Open Tournament Not Held Minor-Rank 4R F A A NH A NH A 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.
PA / Pro-am Event means an event is/was a pro-am event.
  1. ^ It shows the ranking at the beginning of the season
  2. ^ a b He was an amateur
  3. ^ a b New players don't have a ranking
  4. ^ The event was called the Players Championship (2003/2004)
  5. ^ The event was called the Grand Prix (2000/2001 and 2004/2005–2009/2010) and the LG Cup (2001/2002–2003/2004)
  6. ^ The event was called the Players Tour Championship Grand Final (2010/2011–2015/2016)
  7. ^ The event ran under the name Jiangsu Classic (2008/2009–2009/2010)
  8. ^ The event was called the Grand Prix Fürth (2004/2005) and the Fürth German Open (2005/2006–2006/2007)
  9. ^ The event was called the Riga Open (2014/2015–2015/2016)
  10. ^ The event was called the Malta Cup (2004/2005–2007/2008)
  11. ^ The event was called the Benson & Hedges Championship (2000/2001–2002/2003)
  12. ^ The event was called the General Cup International (2004/2005–2011/2012)
  13. ^ The event was called the Six-red Snooker International (2008/2009) and the Six-red World Grand Prix (2009/2010)

Career finals

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Ranking finals: 3

[edit]
Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score
Runner-up 1. 2016 Paul Hunter Classic England Mark Selby 2–4
Runner-up 2. 2023 German Masters England Ali Carter 3–10
Runner-up 3. 2023 International Championship China Zhang Anda 6–10

Minor-ranking finals: 3 (2 titles)

[edit]
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
Runner-up 1. 2015 Riga Open England Barry Hawkins 1–4

Non-ranking finals: 2

[edit]
Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score
Runner-up 1. 2002 Challenge Tour - Event 1 England Chris Melling 2–6
Runner-up 2. 2017 Haining Open England Mark Selby 1–5

Pro-am finals: 3 (1 title)

[edit]
Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score
Winner 1. 2007 Austrian Open England Stephen Lee 5–4
Runner-up 1. 2010 EPTC - Event 1 - Plate England Ben Woollaston 1–3
Runner-up 2. 2010 EPTC - Event 6 - Plate Wales Jamie Jones 0–3

Amateur finals: 2 (2 titles)

[edit]
Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score
Winner 1. 1997 English Under-15 Championship England Stuart Roper 4–0[37]
Winner 2. 2001 English Under-18 Championship England Judd Trump 5–1[38]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Ford leaves hospital and hits 147". BBC. 14 October 2007. Archived from the original on 12 November 2012. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  2. ^ "Focused Tom Ford wins first professional title". BBC Sport. 13 August 2010. Archived from the original on 9 August 2017. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  3. ^ "UK Championship scores". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on 9 August 2017. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  4. ^ "Tom Ford vs. Liu Chuang". Archived from the original on 31 July 2016. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  5. ^ "2011 Australian Goldfields Open". Archived from the original on 12 December 2011. Retrieved 4 December 2011.
  6. ^ "UK Championship 2011 scores". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on 17 October 2020. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  7. ^ "Ford beats Gould in PTC 11 final". Yahoo! News. Archived from the original on 17 October 2020. Retrieved 20 December 2011.
  8. ^ "PTC Order of Merit after PTC12" (PDF). worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 January 2012. Retrieved 29 December 2011.
  9. ^ a b "Tom Ford 2011/2012". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 27 October 2017. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  10. ^ "Mark Allen fights back for German Masters win over Tom Ford". BBC Sport. 3 February 2012. Archived from the original on 2 February 2012. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  11. ^ "Chinese duo qualify for Crucible". Eurosport. 15 April 2012. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  12. ^ "Official World Ranking List for the 2012/2013 Season" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 June 2013. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
  13. ^ a b c "Tom Ford 2012/2013". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 18 October 2017. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  14. ^ "Order of Merit 2012/2013". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 28 April 2013. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  15. ^ "Asian Order of Merit after APTC3" (PDF). worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 December 2013. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
  16. ^ "Robertson Survives Ford Fight-Back". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 20 March 2013. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
  17. ^ "Official World Snooker Ranking List for the 2013/2014 Season" (PDF). World Snooker. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 June 2013. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  18. ^ a b "Tom Ford 2013/2014". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 17 June 2013. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  19. ^ "Welsh snooker stars Mark Williams and Matthew Stevens miss out on World Championships". Wales Online. Archived from the original on 12 March 2018. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  20. ^ "World Snooker Championship: Judd Trump survives fightback from Tom Ford". Sky Sports. 23 April 2014. Archived from the original on 12 March 2018. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  21. ^ a b "Tom Ford 2014/2015". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  22. ^ "UK Championship snooker: Leicester's Tom Ford beats Barry Pinches in first round at York". Leicester Mercury. 26 November 2014. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
  23. ^ "Snooker: Mark Selby to open World Championship title defence against Norway's Kurt Maflin". Leicester Mercury. 16 April 2015. Archived from the original on 17 April 2015. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
  24. ^ "World Rankings After 2015 World Championship". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 7 May 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  25. ^ "Hawkins Rules in Riga". World Snooker. 2 August 2015. Archived from the original on 7 August 2015. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  26. ^ Steve Carroll (28 November 2015). "UK Championship: John Higgins through, but two-time champ Mark Williams crashes out at the York Barbican". The Press (York). Archived from the original on 12 March 2018. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  27. ^ Owen Phillips (2 December 2015). "UK Championship: Tom Ford starts to hit his best form". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on 25 October 2018. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  28. ^ Owen Phillips (3 December 2015). "UK Championship: Tom Ford accuses Liang Wenbo of being boring". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on 30 April 2018. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  29. ^ "Tom Ford 2015/2016". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 31 March 2018. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  30. ^ "Historic Seedings After 2016 World Championship". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 27 September 2016. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  31. ^ a b "Tom Ford 2016/2017". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 31 March 2018. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  32. ^ "Mark Selby takes bragging rights in Paul Hunter Classic by beating Tom Ford in all-Leicester final". Leicester Mercury. Retrieved 3 October 2016. [dead link‍]
  33. ^ "Leicester's Tom Ford hits maximum 147 break against Peter Ebdon at German Masters snooker". Leicester Mercury. Retrieved 13 April 2017. [dead link‍]
  34. ^ "O'Brien Wins Record Two-Hour Frame". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 12 April 2017. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  35. ^ "Leicester's Tom Ford bows out to Barry Hawkins in first round of snooker World Championship". Leicester Mercury. Retrieved 22 April 2017. [dead link‍]
  36. ^ "Ranking History". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 19 December 2018. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  37. ^ "Country Page - England". Global Snooker Centre. Archived from the original on 4 October 2008. Retrieved 14 May 2024.
  38. ^ "English Under 18 Final". worldsnooker.com. WPBSA. Archived from the original on 8 August 2003. Retrieved 14 May 2024.
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