Paul Hunter (snooker player)

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Paul Hunter
birthday October 14, 1978
place of birth Leeds
date of death 9th October 2006 (age 27)
Place of death Huddersfield
nationality EnglandEngland England
Nickname (s) Beckham of the Baize
professional 1995-2006
Prize money £ 1,535,730
Highest break 146
Century Breaks 110
Main tour successes
World championships -
Ranking tournament victories 3
Minor tournament victories -
World rankings
Highest WRL place 4 ( 04/05 )

Paul Alan Hunter (born October 14, 1978 in Leeds , † October 9, 2006 in Huddersfield , Yorkshire ) was a British snooker player .

Career

Hunter made the leap into the professional class at the age of 17 and attracted attention in his debut season, especially when he made it to the semi-finals of the Welsh Open 1996 .

After testing positive for cannabis during a tournament , he was fined and deducted points in the snooker world rankings. Nevertheless, he won the 1998 Welsh Open, the first ranking tournament of his young career, with a 9: 5 final victory over John Higgins .

After further good results - including reaching the semi-finals of the UK Championship in 1998 - he made it into the top 16 of the world snooker rankings for the first time in the 1999/2000 season . He was also named Young Player of the Year .

He had the most successful phase of his career at the beginning of the new millennium. He won the Masters , the most important invitation tournament in snooker, three times (2001, 2002 and 2004) . He also won his second title at the Welsh Open in 2002 and another ranking tournament with the British Open . His best performance in a snooker world championship he achieved in 2003 when he reached the semi-finals.

Thanks to his spectacular comebacks in the course of a match, Hunter was one of the audience favorites in snooker. His race to catch up at the Masters in 2004 was exemplary, when he was able to beat Ronnie O'Sullivan 10: 9 after a 2: 7 deficit in the final . In addition, he made a name for himself with his mostly extravagant hairstyles, which suggested comparisons with the equally popular footballer David Beckham .

In March 2005, several malicious were with Paul Hunter carcinoid tumors in the small intestine discovered. Hunter took part anyway in the World Championship in April, but lost his first round match there. The first chemotherapy did not work, which is why he had to repeat the treatment. In the following season he also took part in all world ranking tournaments, for which his place in the top 16 entitled him. Due to the side effects of chemotherapy (including vision problems and numb limbs) Hunter won only a few games in the entire 2005/06 season and fell out of the top 32 in the official world rankings.

After another relapse of the disease, he had to undergo a third chemotherapy, so he canceled participation in the 2006/07 season. The World Snooker Association had previously changed its statutes: players could now freeze their season placement and score in the event of serious illness. This would have allowed Hunter to compete again as number 34 in the world.

However, on October 9, 2006, he succumbed to cancer.

Paul Hunter had been married to Lindsey Fell since 2004 and their daughter was born on December 26, 2005.

Personal & Posthumous Honors

In his honor, the Fürth German Open was renamed the Paul Hunter Classic . The WPBSA's Newcomer Award now also bears his name. As of 2017, the Masters trophy will be renamed "Paul Hunter Trophy". This honor was long overdue, 10 years after Paul Hunter's death , according to Barry Hearn . Ronnie O'Sullivan dedicated his 2017 Masters victory to Paul Hunter. He explained that a player who has done as much for the sport as Hunter rightly gave his name to the trophy.

After his death, his wife Lindsey wrote a book about her life, love and battle with cancer. The book was published in English in September 2007 under the title Unbreakable . The German translation was published by Bertelsmann in 2009 under the title My wonderful life with Paul .

Tournament victories

Ranked tournaments

Invitation tournaments

Others (selection)

literature

  • Lindsey Hunter: My wonderful life with Paul . Translated from English by Kristiana Dorn-Ruhl. Rheda-Wiedenbrück, Gütersloh: RM-Buch-und-Medien-Vertrieb, Bertelsmann, 2009; DNB 994486634 .
    • Original: Unbreakable: my life with Paul: a story of extraordinary courage and love . London: HarperElement, 2008; ISBN 978-0-00-726091-1

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Profile of Paul Hunter on CueTracker (as of August 22, 2019)
  2. ^ Trevor Baxter: Paul Hunter ; independent.co.uk , October 11, 2006.
  3. ↑ Eric Eggert: “German Open” becomes “Paul Hunter Classics” ; snookerblog.de, January 4th 2007.
  4. ^ Snooker Awards ( Memento from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ); Chris Turner's Snooker Archive as of 2011; Retrieved May 5, 2014.
  5. ↑ BBC report ; Retrieved April 22, 2016.
  6. ↑ Ronnie O'Sullivan beats Joe Perry to win record seventh Masters title in: The Guardian , January 22, 2017, accessed January 23, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Hunter, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hunter, Paul Alan (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British snooker player
DATE OF BIRTH October 14, 1978
PLACE OF BIRTH Leeds , Yorkshire
DATE OF DEATH October 9, 2006
Place of death Huddersfield , Yorkshire