Neil Robertson (snooker player)

Neil Robertson
birthday	11th February 1982 (age 38)
place of birth	Melbourne
nationality	Australia
Nickname (s)	The Thunder from Down Under, The Aussie Ace, The Melbourne Machine
professional	1998/99, 2000/01, 2001/02, since 2003/04
Prize money	£ 5,015,845 (As of August 27, 2020)
Highest break	147 (4 ×)
Century Breaks	715 (as of August 27, 2020)
Main tour successes
World championships	1
Ranking tournament victories	18th
Minor tournament victories	4th
World rankings
Highest WRL place	1 (Sep. – Dec. 2010, Jun. 2013 – May 2014, Jul. – Aug., Dec. 2014 – Jan. 2015)
Current WRL location	3 (as of August 17, 2020)

Neil Robertson (born February 11, 1982 in Melbourne ) is an Australian snooker player . He achieved his greatest sporting success in 2010 when he won the world championship . In the following season, as well as in 2013 and 2014, Robertson was number one in the world rankings .

As the eighth player in snooker history, the Australian won the Triple Crown , including twice the UK Championship . In the 2013/14 season he was the first player ever to achieve more than one hundred official Century Breaks within one season, setting a new milestone in this statistic. He was also the first player to score a maximum break in the final of a Triple Crown tournament at the 2015 UK Championship .

He is the only Australian snooker player to date to have won a ranked tournament and the most successful snooker player outside the UK with a total of 18 ranked tournaments .

At the German Masters 2016 Robertson made his debut as a commentator and expert for the television channel British Eurosport .

Career

Youth and the beginning of a professional career

Neil Robertson dominated Australian snooker in the youth and was from 1996 four times in a row U18 youth champion , twice he won afterwards in the age group U21. In 1998, at the age of 16, he became a professional on the Snooker Main Tour . Since it was difficult for him to come to terms with a life abroad, and since he was not able to collect enough world ranking points with his performances, he left the professional tour after a year and returned to Australia.

Robertson qualified a second time in 2000 and a third time in 2003 for the Main Tour, having won his first international title, the IBSF World Under-21 Snooker Championship in New Zealand that same year . He finished the following season at world number 68. In the following year, he earned a place in the top 32.

2006–2008: Promotion and first world ranking tournament victory

At the 2006 World Championships he reached the quarterfinals after victories over Paul Hunter and Stephen Lee , in which he narrowly failed at 12:13 at the eventual world champion Graeme Dott .

In the 2006/07 season , Robertson started with 13th place in the top 16 for the first time . He was set for the finals of all major tournaments. At the 2006 Grand Prix , after successes over Ronnie O'Sullivan and Alan McManus , he entered the final of a ranking tournament for the first time. He defeated Jamie Cope there with 9: 5 and was the first Australian to win a world ranking tournament. During the Welsh Open 2007 he defeated the multiple world champions Stephen Hendry , Ronnie O'Sullivan and Steve Davis and in the final Andrew Higginson just 9: 8. He was the only player to win two (of a total of seven) fully-fledged ranked tournaments during the season - an achievement that Ronnie O'Sullivan had last achieved in the 2003/04 season .

Due to his success in 2006/07, Robertson was elected Player of the Year, he finished the season in 7th place. With mixed results in 2007/08 , however, he fell back to 10th place at the end of the season.

2008–2010: World championship title and establishment among the world's best

In the 2008 season he won his third ranking tournament with the Bahrain Championship and in the 2009 World Snooker Championship he made it to the semi-finals.

He celebrated his fourth tournament victory in the 2009/10 season at the 2009 Grand Prix . This made him the first non-British Isles player to win more than three world rankings. He also improved to third place in the provisional world ranking, the Provisional Ranking .

At the China Open 2010 he was eliminated in the round of 16 with 1: 5 against Peter Ebdon ; in the match, however, he managed his first official maximum break .

At the 2010 World Cup in Sheffield , he became the second Australian snooker player after Horace Lindrum in 1952 (whose title is controversial because of the association disputes at the time) the world championship .

After a 10: 5 first round win against Fergal O'Brien , he was in the round of 16 against Martin Gould before the end. After the first session he was 2: 6, after the second 5:11, but he was finally able to win the match with 13:12. In the quarterfinals he then won 13: 5 against Steve Davis. In the semifinals against Ali Carter he also had a clear advantage early on and in the end won clearly with 17:12. The final against Graeme Dott (2006 World Champion) showed a completely different picture. Both players were visibly exhausted from the long tournament matches, which was reflected in many minor mistakes, especially on the second day of the final. Robertson took the lead early, but was only able to build on it in the final stages. The match ended with Robertson's 18:13 victory just before 1:00 a.m. English time, making it one of the longest finals in the history of the World Snooker Championship .

2010/11: Number one in the world rankings

Robertson at the 2010 Paul Hunter Classic

The 2010/11 season also got off to a promising start. Mainly thanks to the victory at the World Open 2010 , he was able to sit at the top of the world rankings for a few months. However, he benefited from the six-month ban on John Higgins , after the update in December 2010, he lost the top rank again.

At the UK Championship he reached the quarterfinals, where he narrowly failed to Shaun Murphy 7: 9. At the start of the Masters he defeated Stephen Hendry 6: 3, but then lost to Mark Allen 4: 6. At the 2011 World Cup , he had to admit defeat to Judd Trump with 8:10 in the first round . He finished the season in 5th place.

2011/12: First master's degree

Robertson wins the Masters 2012

In July 2011, the Australian Goldfields Open was the first full ranking tournament in Robertson's home country, in which the local hero was knocked out 4-5 by Dominic Dale in round two . This was followed by two semi-finals at the Shanghai Masters and the UK Championship , his best result to date at the Triple Crown tournament.

In early 2012 he won the prestigious Masters against Shaun Murphy 10-6 . At the PTC Grand Finals he then lost his first final in a ranking tournament. Before that, however, he had won two PTC tournaments . At the snooker world championship in 2012 he was defeated in the quarterfinals by the eventual world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan with 10:13.

2012/13: Seventh victory in world ranking tournaments

The highlights of the 2012/13 season were reaching the finals at the International Championship and winning the Gdynia Open 2012 , another minor ranking tournament on the PTC Tour . In January he reached the Masters final for the second time , where he was defeated by Mark Selby 6:10. It was his first defeat in the final of a Triple Crown tournament after two victories at the 2010 World Cup and the 2012 Masters .

As in the previous year, he reached the final of the PTC Grand Finals . There he met Ding Junhui , who was able to turn Robertson's 3-0 lead into a 4-3 victory. At the end of March 2013 he won the China Open by beating Mark Selby 10-6 in the final . At the world championship , in which he achieved the highest break of the tournament with 143 points, he lost to Robert Milkins in round one .

2013/14: Triple Crown and "Ton of Tons"

Neil Robertson at the German Masters 2014

The 2013/14 season got off to a promising start. In qualifying for the Wuxi Classic he managed a maximum break against the Egyptian Mohamed Khairy for the second time in his career . In June 2013 he won the Wuxi Classic with a 10-7 final win over John Higgins , his second win in a row at a ranking tournament in China . At the Australian Goldfields Open Robertson reached his third final in the 2013/14 season, he lost to Marco Fu 6: 9.

This was followed by more good tournament runs at the Shanghai Masters , where he lost 5-2 in the quarterfinals to eventual tournament winner Ding Junhui , and he reached the semifinals at the Champion of Champions' tournament debut . He crowned his most successful year to date with a total of three rankings and four other finals by winning the UK Championship . Robertson thus completed the Triple Crown as the eighth player in snooker history .

On April 30, 2014 he succeeded in the quarter-finals of the 2014 Snooker World Championship against Judd Trump as the first player to achieve the 100th Century Break within a season, after the end of the tournament it was a total of 103. The previous record of 61 Century Breaks was only in the previous season of Judd Trump.

2014/15: Tenth ranking tournament victory

Robertson at the German Masters 2015

In June 2014 Robertson defended his title at the Wuxi Classic with a 10: 9 final victory over Englishman Joe Perry . It was the tenth triumph in a world ranking tournament for the Australian. Just a week later he reached the final again at the Australian Goldfields Open , in which he was defeated by Judd Trump 5-9. After moderate results in China and on the Euro Tour , Robertson made it into the semi-finals of the Champion of Champions for the second time in a row , where he again had to admit defeat to Judd Trump 4-6.

After the winter break, Robertson started furiously in the Masters with impressive 6-1 victories over Ali Carter and Ronnie O'Sullivan . In the final, the Australian had a bad day against Shaun Murphy and suffered one of the bitterest defeats of his career with a 2:10. At the German Masters he marched confidently into the quarter-finals, where he fought a close head-to-head duel with Stephen Maguire . In the decider Robertson was already leading with 69 points when he snookered himself unhappily on green and was eliminated 4: 5. A few days later, the Australian won his first tournament of the season at the Gdynia Open against Mark Williams 4-0. He also started strong at the World Cup with 10: 2 against Jamie Jones and 13: 5 against Ali Carter and sometimes presented a top-class match, but was knocked out in the quarterfinals against Barry Hawkins with 12:13.

2015/16: Champion of Champions and second UK Championship

The season started disappointingly for the Australian. After reaching the finals of his home tournament twice in a row, this time he was eliminated 4-5 in round one against Matthew Selt . This was followed by further first round defeats at the Shanghai Masters and the Ruhr Open . The other tournaments of the PTC series canceled Robertson and instead spent several weeks with his family in Australia.

At the International Championship he found his way back to his old form and reached the quarterfinals, where he was defeated by Mark Selby 4-6. Almost two weeks later, after victories over Rory McLeod , Yan Bingtao and Joe Perry, he moved into the final of the Champion of Champions and won the prestigious trophy with a 10: 5 win over Mark Allen as the second player after Ronnie O'Sullivan . Robertson was also in top form at the UK Championship . After a gala performance, he won against Stephen Maguire in the round of 16 with 6: 1 and then defeated the formally strong John Higgins with 6: 5. In the semifinals there was the second leg against Mark Selby, in which the Englishman repeatedly made good breaks, but Robertson rolled up the frames from behind with outstanding clearances. The Australian won 6-0 and reached the final of the second tournament in a row. Robertson crowned his strong tournament performance with a maximum break , the first in the final of a triple crown tournament and the third of his career, and defeated Liang Wenbo 10-5 .

The next setback already followed in the qualification for the German Masters , where he had to admit defeat to amateur player Ashley Hugill 1: 5. Instead, the Australian made his debut at the Tempodrom as a commentator and expert for British Eurosport . A month earlier he reached the quarter-finals at the Masters in London , where he was defeated by Judd Trump 5: 6 after a first-class match with a total of six Century Breaks. At the Welsh Open 2016 , Robertson made it into the final again and took a 5-2 lead against Ronnie O'Sullivan in the first session . In the evening, the Englishman overran him with seven frames in a row and won 9: 5. By the end of the season, Robertson couldn't win any more games and ended the season in 5th place.

2016/17: 12th ranking tournament victory

Robertson started the current season with a 5-2 win at the Riga Masters 2016 against Michael Holt , who had defeated him almost two months earlier in the first round of the World Championship . A month later he reached the semi-finals at the World Open , where he was defeated by Joe Perry with three Centuries and 6-2. At the Shanghai Masters he was eliminated with a 2-5 in the first round against Ryan Day . At the European Masters in Bucharest he reached the semi-finals, but was outclassed there 6-0 by Ronnie O'Sullivan .

In July 2017, he won the Hong Kong Masters , a one-time invitation tournament, against Ronnie O'Sullivan.

2017/18

The season started mixed and at short notice he even dropped out of the top 16 in the world rankings , so that he could not take part in the Masters . With his victory at the Scottish Open , where he defeated Cao Yupeng 9: 8 in a dramatic final , he was able to climb back into the top 16.

Robertson stayed in the top 16, so he was seeded at the 2018 World Snooker Championship and didn't have to qualify. Robertson was still defeated by Robert Milkins 5:10.

2018/19: Three ranking tournament victories

He started the season successfully with a win at the Riga Masters 2018 , defeating Jack Lisowski 5-2 in the final .

In February 2019 Robertson managed the fourth maximum break of his career at the Welsh Open . He later beat Stuart Bingham in the final and won the tournament. He then moved into the finals of the Players Championship and the Tour Championship , but lost both finals against Ronnie O'Sullivan. He won his third ranking tournament victory of the season at the China Open with an 11: 4 against Jack Lisowski.

Skills and style of play

Robertson is one of the most outstanding offensive players in snooker. He is known for his strong break building and precise match play, especially with long balls, which has earned him the nickname "The Thunder from Down Under". Stephen Hendry even considers him the best "Long Potter" in the game. Robertson has a rock-solid impact posture without any head movement, even with strong hits, which means that he can also play strong pulling balls precisely.

In the match he always tries to get into high frame-critical breaks as quickly as possible and clear the table up to the last ball. This mentality is particularly evident in the 100 Century Breaks that he achieved in the 2013/14 season . However, his safeties and tactical play have also improved a lot in recent years, making the Australian one of the best all-rounders in the game.

Personal

Robertson spends the season in Cambridge with his son Alexander and his Norwegian partner Mille . Eight days after his triumph at the World Cup , on May 12, 2010, their first child was born.

He trained for a while at Willie Thorne's Snooker Club in Leicester , and is currently visiting the Cambridge Snooker Center with his friend and mentor, Joe Perry . It is managed by Grove Leisure partner, Django Fung, who also looks after the two top players Judd Trump and Liang Wenbo .

In addition to snooker, Robertson does intensive weight training in order to train himself the necessary fitness for his playing style. He switched to a vegan diet since 2014 , but does not lead a vegan lifestyle. For example, he still wears leather shoes at snooker tournaments.

Robertson is a passionate fan of Chelsea FC and close friends with former team captain John Terry . His second great passion are video games and online games.

successes

Season overview

competition	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
Ranking position	68	28	13	7th	10	9	2	5	7th	2	3	3	5	7th	10	4th
Ranked tournaments
Riga Masters	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2R	NT	S.	1R	S.	NT
World Open	3R	1R	S.	RR	1R	S.	S.	2R	HF	3R	-	-	HF	3R	2R	NT
Shanghai Masters	-	-	-	1R	2R	1R	1R	HF	2R	VF	1R	1R	1R	QV	2R	HF
European Masters	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	HF	3R	1R	S.
English Open	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	3R	VF	4R	3R
International Championship	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	F.	3R	2R	VF	3R	3R	F.	4R
Northern Ireland Open	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	NT	3R	3R	1R
UK Championship	2R	VF	2R	1R	2R	2R	VF	HF	VF	S.	4R	S.	1R	3R	4R	4R
Scottish Open	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	VF	-	-	-	4R	S.	2R	4R
German Masters	-	-	-	-	-	-	1R	2R	HF	2R	VF	QV	1R	QV	VF	F.
Welsh Open	VF	1R	S.	3R	HF	2R	2R	1R	2R	3R	4R	F.	2R	2R	S.	VF
Shoot-out	-	-	-	-	-	-	VF	NT	NT	NT	NT	NT	NT	NT	NT	NT
World Grand Prix	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2R	1R	VF	2R	1R	S.
Players Championship	-	-	-	-	-	-	NQ	F.	F.	1R	2R	NQ	VF	VF	F.	1R
Tour Championship	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	F.	VF
China Open	QV	1R	2R	1R	2R	2R	2R	VF	S.	F.	1R	1R	NT	HF	S.	-
World Championship	1R	VF	2R	2R	HF	S.	1R	VF	1R	HF	VF	1R	2R	1R	VF	VF
Invitation tournaments
6-Red World Championship	-	-	-	NT	NT	NT	NT	NT	NT	F.	NT	NT	NT	NT	NT	NT
Champion of Champions	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	HF	HF	S.	1R	1R	VF	S.
Masters	NT	QV	VF	1R	VF	1R	VF	S.	F.	VF	F.	VF	VF	NQ	HF	1R
Championship League	-	-	-	RR	RR	HF	RR	2R	RR	RR	ZG	ZG	RR	ZG	HF	(Flat share)
Former tournaments
Malta Cup	VF	1R	2R	RR		-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Premier League snooker	NT	NT	NT	RR	NT	RR	HF	RR	HF		-	-	-	-	-	-
Northern Ireland Trophy	-	HF	3R	VF	2R		-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Bahrain Championship		-	-	-	-	S.	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Wuxi Classic	-	-	-	-	-	2R	NT	NT	NT	1R	S.	S.	-	-	-	-
Australian Goldfields Open	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2R	2R	F.	F.	1R	-	-	-	-

Legend
S.	Tournament winner	F.	finalist
HF	Semi-finalist	VF	Quarter finalist
XR	Loss in round X (RR = Round Robin)	QV	Defeat in qualification
NQ	Not qualified	NT	Not participated
ZG	Resigned	-	Tournament not held

1. ↑ As of the 2010/11 season, the ranking position will be displayed at the beginning of the season.
2. ↑ The tournament had no ranking tournament status up to and including the 2015/16 season.
3. ↑ The tournament was called Grand Prix (2004 / 05–2009 / 10), World Open (2010/11) and Haikou World Open (2011 / 12–2013 / 14).
4. ↑ The tournament is an invitation tournament from the 2018/19 season.
5. ↑ The tournament did not have a ranking tournament status in the 2014/15 season.
6. ↑ The tournament was called Jiangsu Classic (2008 / 09–2009 / 10).

Tournament wins and finals

Ibid

output	year	competition	Final opponent	Result
Ranked tournaments
winner	2006	World Open	Jamie Cope	9: 5
winner	2007	Welsh Open	Andrew Higginson	9: 8
winner	2008	Bahrain Championship	Matthew Stevens	9: 7
winner	2009	World Open	Ding Junhui	9: 4
winner	2010	World Snooker Championship	Graeme Dott	18:13
winner	2010	World Open	Ronnie O'Sullivan	5: 1
finalist	2012	Players Championship Grand Final	Stephen Lee	0: 4
finalist	2012	International Championship	Judd Trump	8:10
finalist	2013	Players Championship Grand Final	Ding Junhui	3: 4
winner	2013	China Open	Mark Selby	10: 6
winner	2013	Wuxi Classic	John Higgins	10: 7
finalist	2013	Australian Goldfields Open	Marco Fu	6: 9
winner	2013	UK Championship	Mark Selby	10: 7
finalist	2014	China Open	Ding Junhui	5:10
winner	2014	Wuxi Classic	Joe Perry	10: 9
finalist	2014	Australian Goldfields Open	Judd Trump	5: 9
winner	2015	UK Championship	Liang Wenbo	10: 5
finalist	2016	Welsh Open	Ronnie O'Sullivan	5: 9
winner	2016	Riga Masters	Michael Holt	5: 2
winner	2017	Scottish Open	Cao Yupeng	9: 8
winner	2018	Riga Masters	Jack Lisowski	5: 3
winner	2019	Welsh Open	Stuart Bingham	9: 7
finalist	2019	Players Championship	Ronnie O'Sullivan	4:10
finalist	2019	Tour Championship	Ronnie O'Sullivan	11:13
winner	2019	China Open	Jack Lisowski	11: 4
winner	2020	European Masters	Zhou Yuelong	9-0
winner	2020	World Grand Prix	Graeme Dott	10: 8
Minor ranking tournaments
winner	2011	Warsaw Classic	Ricky Walden	4: 1
winner	2011	Alex Higgins International Trophy	Judd Trump	4: 1
winner	2012	Gdynia Open	Jamie Burnett	4: 3
finalist	2013	Bulgarian Open	John Higgins	1: 4
winner	2015	Gdynia Open	Mark Williams	4-0
Invitation tournaments
winner	2003	Masters qualifying event	Dominic Dale	6: 5
winner	2012	Masters	Shaun Murphy	10: 6
winner	2012	General Cup	Ricky Walden	7: 6
finalist	2013	Masters	Mark Selby	6:10
finalist	2013	General Cup	Mark Davis	2: 7
finalist	2015	Masters	Shaun Murphy	2:10
winner	2015	Champion of Champions	Mark Allen	10: 5
winner	2017	Hong Kong Masters	Ronnie O'Sullivan	6: 3
winner	2019	Champion of Champions	Judd Trump	10: 9

Legend
	Triple Crown Tournament

Other titles (selection)

• OBSF Oceania Championship (2002)
• IBSF U21 World Snooker Championship (2003)
• WLBSA World Mixed Doubles Championship (with Reanne Evans ) (2008)

Trivia

• Robertson's current "Walk On" music broadcast on television is Protectors of the Earth by the American music company Two Steps from Hell .
• In memory of the late Australian cricketer Phillip Hughes , Robertson brought a cricket bat to his 2014 UK Championship second round match against Kyren Wilson . He won the game in the decider 6: 5.
• Had he not become a professional snooker player, he would have pursued a career as a graphic designer for online game developers.
• He is left handed.
• In 2013, Robertson became the first Australian to be inducted into the Snooker Hall of Fame.

Web links

Commons : Neil Robertson (snooker player)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official Homepage (English)
• Player profile on World Snooker (English)
• Neil Robertson in snooker Database (English)

swell

1. ↑ ^{a b} Neil Robertson. In: worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association , January 11, 2015, accessed August 8, 2015 . 
2. ↑ Neil Robertson's profile on CueTracker (as of August 18, 2018)
3. ↑ Snooker Info - 100Centuries (as of August 7, 2019)
4. ↑ Ranking Records: Number One. Number One Players (updated 04/05/2015) :. In: Pro Snooker Blog. Retrieved August 9, 2015 . 
5. ↑ World Cup in the Crucible: Neil Robertson with Fluke against Barry Hawkins. Retrieved August 10, 2020 . 
6. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Neil Robertson - Profiles. Accessed December 15, 2015 . 
7. ^ Grove Leisure - Snooker Players. Accessed December 15, 2015 . 
8. ↑ UK Snooker Championship: Neil Robertson has never felt better since turning to vegan diet. Yorkpress.co.uk, November 29, 2014, accessed December 15, 2015 . 
9. ^ Neil Robertson: "Chelsea more on my mind than UK Championship final". Yorkpress.co.uk, December 6, 2015, accessed December 15, 2015 . 
10. ↑ Phillip Hughes tribute: Australian snooker player Neil Robertson takes bat into the arena at UK Championships. The Telegraph, November 30, 2014, accessed December 15, 2015 .