Neil Robertson – First Aussie Cueist to Clinch World title
Neil Robertson is an Australian professional snooker player who is the reigning World Champion in snooker. He is the only Australian cueist to have won a ranking tournament in snooker history. Robertson is the winner of five ranking tournaments across the globe and has successfully defeated a number of international snooker stars.
Born on 11 February 1982 in Melbourne, Australia, Robertson started his snooker career at the age of 14 with an Australian ranking event. With a century break in his debut game, Robertson became the youngest player in the history of snooker to pile-up a century break. He turned into a professional snooker player in 1998. He was just 17 when he reached the third qualifying round of the World Championship in the year 1999.He won the World Under-21 Snooker Championship title in July 2003 which was held in the scenic country of New Zealand.
The victory turned out to be a milestone for the WPBSA Main Tour, where he is a recognized figure of late. In 2003, Robertson won the qualifying tournament and also got a berth in the 2004 Masters tournament, where he lost to Jimmy White of England in the first round with a score of 6-3 frames. In that particular game, Robertson showed strong potting skills but lacked in the areas of break-building and safety.
During the 2004/05 season, out of eight total tournaments Peterson played, he qualified for the final stages of six, moving up to the number 32 ranking in the world. The Aussie reached the final stages of the 2005 World Championship. However, Stephen Hendry defeated him with a frame score of 7-10 in the first round.
In the 2005/06 season, he sustained the progress that he made in the earlier year by reaching the top 16 ranking at the end of the season.
Peterson powered through in the 2006/07 season and finished at the top of his group in the 2006 Grand Prix's round robin stage, only losing his opener against Nigel Bond by a frame score of 3-2. The Aussie then went on to the semi-finals of the tournament after beating Ronnie O'Sullivan with 5 frames to 1 in the quarter-finals of the tournament. He was the fourth Australian cue man to achieve this feat in a international ranking event. In the semi-finals of the tournament, Peterson beat Alan McManus 6–2 to enter into his first major final, where he comfortably defeated first-time finalist Jamie Cope by 9-5. It was his first ever professional ranking tournament that he won. Robertson received prize money of 60,000 pounds which was the highest amount of money that he earnt in a tournament.
He went to the second round of the 2007 World Championship, where he lost to Ronnie O'Sullivan by 10 frames to 13, although the Australian was winning at one stage by six frames in a trot.
Robertson’s start of 2007/08 season was not good. He received early exits in the three ranking events which included the 2008 Malta Cup and the 2008 Masters. He was outside the top sixteen rankings albeit finished the season within the top 10 ranking.
After a poor start to the 2008/09 season, Robertson made his way to the final of the 2008 Bahrain Championship. He played Matthew Stevens in the final. The game took almost 6 hours in total to reach to a final conclusion after beating Robertson in a thrilling game by 9 frames to 7. This win moved Neil back into the top 16 of the world, although only for the time being. In the 2009 Masters, Robertson and his opponent Stephen Maguire laid down a record of piling up 5 successive century breaks. Maguire made 3 centuries while Robertson could only make 2. Maguire won the title 6–3in the end.
At the 2009 World Championships, Robertson, for the first time in snooker history, reached the semi-finals of the World Championship after defeating Steve Davis, Ali Carter and Stephen Maguire. But before he could go ahead towards the finals, Shaun Murphy beat him with a frame score of 14–17.
Robertson clinched the 2009 Grand Prix trophy in October 2009 in Glasgow after defeating China's Ding Junhui in the final (9–4).
It was Robertson's fourth title in international ranking tournaments, making him the most successful player from outside the United Kingdom or Ireland. Later on, at the UK Championships, Ding equalled his total. This win moved him up to the third place in provisional rankings following Scotland's John Higgins and Ronnie O'Sullivan of England.
On 1st April 2010, Robertson chalked the first official maximum break of his career against Peter Ebdon in the second round match of the 2010 China Open.
Winning the 2010 World Championship, Robertson got his career-high ranking of second place in world snooker. With the win, he became the first Australian and only the third non-UK player, after Cliff Thorburn and Ken Doherty, to clinch the famous trophy.
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