Peter Ebdon

Peter David Ebdon (born 27 August 1970)[3] is an English professional snooker player. He was World Champion in 2002, beating Stephen Hendry 18–17 in the final, and won the UK Championship in 2006 and 7 other ranking events between 1993 and 2012. He was also a losing finalist in the World Championship in 1996 and 2006. Ebdon turned professional in 1991 and soon made an impact by beating six-time world champion Steve Davis 10–4 in the first round of the 1992 World Championship and reaching the quarter-final stage.

Ebdon is renowned for his focused, meticulously slow and determined style of play. As a prolific break-builder, he has compiled in excess of 350 century breaks during his career.[2]

Contents 1 Career 1.1 Early years 1.2 2002–2010 1.3 2010/2011 1.4 2011/2012 1.5 2012/2013 1.6 2013/2014 1.7 2014/2015 1.8 2015/2016 2 Status 3 Personal life 4 Performance and rankings timeline 5 Career finals 5.1 Ranking event finals: 17 (9 titles, 8 runners-up) 5.2 Non-ranking wins: (4 titles) 5.3 Pro-am wins 5.4 Amateur wins 6 Notes 7 References 8 External links

Career
Early years

Ebdon turned professional in 1991, sporting a ponytail, he made an impact by beating Steve Davis 10–4 in the first round of the 1992 World Championship; he went on to reach the quarter-finals of the event, losing 13–7 to a resurgent Terry Griffiths. However, it was a run which earned him the WPBSA Young Player of the Year award as a result. His first ranking title was the 1993 Grand Prix.[4] He climbed the rankings rapidly to reach a career-highest position of number three in 1996; he again reached world number three status at the close of the 2002 season.

2002–2010

Perhaps Ebdon's greatest achievement, thus far, was his 18–17 defeat of Stephen Hendry in the 2002 World Championship final,[5] having started the tournament at odds of 33–1.[4] He had previously reached the final of the tournament in 1996, which he lost 18–12 to Hendry, and was also runner-up at the 2006 event to Graeme Dott in which, at 15–7 down coming into the final session, Ebdon won six successive frames before Dott prevailed 18–14. In the semi-final before the final he led Marco Fu 15–9 before being pegged back to 16–16 before Ebdon took the decider, at the end of which he shed tears of relief.

Ebdon is a remarkably focused and determined player. Until recently, his shot times had slowed down considerably; this attracted some criticism – particularly, in his match against Ronnie O'Sullivan in the 2005 World Championship. Resuming at 10–6 down, Ebdon won the first six frames of the evening session, at one stage taking three minutes over a shot, and five minutes to compile a break of 12. Ebdon nevertheless won the match 13–11.[6] Such performances, though lacking fluency, often appear to break his opponent mentally. Ebdon stated after his victory over O'Sullivan, "When I'm trying my hardest I seem to go slow. I don't do it intentionally". When The Times described his slow play as 'cheating', he attempted to sue them for libel and lost.[7]

Among Ebdon's other career highlights was winning the UK Championship in 2006, beating Stephen Hendry 10–6 in the final[8] – in doing so, becoming only the ninth player to have won both the World and UK Championship. Ebdon's shot times were markedly quicker, and this fluency served him well in defeating the defending champion Ding Junhui and John Higgins en route to the final, and compiling eight century-breaks over the course of the tournament. However, he failed to reach a ranking quarter-final in 2007. His poor form continued into 2008; in the Northern Ireland Trophy he lost 0–5 to Liang Wenbo with a highest break of 32, a result which led to an investigation of suspicious betting patterns by the Gambling Commission. The WPBSA, of which Ebdon is a board member, has yet to announce an investigation of its own.[9][10]

In 2009, Ebdon beat John Higgins 10–8 to win the China Open. However, in the subsequent World Championship, Ebdon lost 10–5 to Nigel Bond in the first round. A year later, after a disappointing season, Ebdon once again lost 10–5 in the World Championship, this time to Graeme Dott. This result meant Ebdon dropped out of the top 16 in the world rankings after an uninterrupted 16-year stay.[11]

2010/2011

Peter Ebdon at the 2010 Brugge Open At the start of the season Ebdon issued a statement announcing that he would not be able to play to the best of his ability in the last round of the Shanghai Masters qualifiers.[12] He reached the second round of the tournament though by winning his qualifying match by 5–1 against Michael White, and then his last 32 match against Neil Robertson 5–4 before losing against Mark King 3–5. He enjoyed a good return of form in the World Open, where he beat Steve Davis 3–1, Fergal O'Brien 3–2, Liu Song 3–2, and Martin Gould 3–1 before losing against Ronnie O'Sullivan 1–3. This was his first semi-final since the 2009 China Open and saw him retake a place in the top 16. He also reached the quarter-finals of the China Open and the last 16 of the German Masters and Welsh Open.[13] However, he was knocked out in the first round of both the UK Championship and World Championship, but was still ranked as number 13 at the end of the season.[14]

2011/2012

Ebdon lost in the first round of the first two ranking events of the year, the Australian Goldfields Open and the Shanghai Masters, to make a low key start to the season and as a result drop out of the top 16 at the first cut-off in October, meaning he now had to win a qualifying match to reach the main draw of the ranking events.[15] He lost his first qualifying match in an attempt to reach the UK Championship as he was defeated 3–6 by Robert Milkins. The result meant that Ebdon would not play in the tournament since his first year as a professional in 1991.[16] He also missed the Masters for the first time since 1992 due to being ranked outside of the top 16, but did manage to qualify for the German Masters and the Welsh Open, losing in the first round upon reaching the venue in both events.[13]

He had a disastrous run of form in the PTC series, as he played in all 12 events but could only win 4 matches all season. He finished 98th in the Order of Merit and these results contributed to Ebdon being ranked world number 28 in March.[17][18]

Ebdon put his indifferent form behind him at the China Open where he won the ninth ranking event title of his career. He whitewashed Liang Wenbo 5–0 to qualify and once in China beat Matthew Stevens 5–3 to set up a last 16 meeting with John Higgins. He came back from 1–3 down and, despite Higgins finding a snooker he needed in the final frame, he held his nerve to take the match 5–4 and his reach his fourth successive China Open quarter-final.[19] There he beat Neil Robertson 5–3 to play local favourite Ding Junhui in the semi-finals. Ebdon again came back from 1–3 down, this time winning five successive frames to take the match 6–3 and make it to his first ranking event final since winning the same tournament three years earlier.[20] In the final he played Stephen Maguire and built a 5–1 lead in the first session, which was cut by three frames due to slow play. However, Maguire won seven of the next ten frames to level the match at 8 frames apiece. The final three frames were error strewn and slow, but with the clock approaching 01:00 am Beijing time, Ebdon clinched the frame he required to win the eight-hour match 10–9. The result saw him rise seven places in the rankings to number 21 and during the final he recorded the 300th century break of his career.[21][22] He made six century breaks during the tournament, the most of any player – four of which were in the final.[23]

He continued his recent surge of form into the World Championship by recording a 10–0 whitewash over Alfie Burden in qualifying.[24] However, his season was ended when he drew Ronnie O'Sullivan in the first round and lost 4–10, meaning he has failed to beat The Rocket since their infamous 2005 quarter-final.[25] Despite his win in China, Ebdon finished the season ranked world number 20 meaning he had dropped 7 places during the year.[26]

2012/2013

Ebdon began the season by qualifying for the Wuxi Classic and lost 4–5 to an in-form Stuart Bingham in the first round.[27] He then played in the Australian Goldfields Open, beating Michael Holt, Ding Junhui and Shaun Murphy all by 5–4 scorelines.[27] The match against Ding caused a degree of controversy as Ebdon had taken an average of 32 seconds a shot in a nine frame encounter lasting almost 5 hours.[28] In the semi-finals he defeated Marco Fu 6–2, despite his opponent having over a 90% pot success, 80% long pot success and 80% in his safety game success.[29] He faced Barry Hawkins in the final and succumbed to a 3–9 defeat,[30] admitting afterwards that he had struggled in every department of his game.[31] Ebdon lost in the first round of the Shanghai Masters, but continued his good start to the season at the inaugural International Championship. He received a bye through the first round as Stephen Lee had been suspended due to match fixing allegations,[32] and only conceded one frame in beating Stephen Maguire and Ricky Walden to advance to the semi-finals.[27] There he was thrashed 1–9 by Judd Trump.[33] In the rest of the season Ebdon lost in qualifying for three ranking events and in the first round of the World Open and the China Open.[27] He qualified for the World Championship by coming back from 6–8 to beat Kurt Maflin 10–8 and played Graeme Dott in the first round, a repeat of the 2006 final.[34] His place in the main draw meant Ebdon equalled Steve Davis by featuring in 22 consecutive appearances in the tournament, second only to Stephen Hendry's record of 27.[35] His match against Dott lasted seven hours, spread over three sessions as Ebdon battled back from 2–6 to level at 6–6, before losing the last four frames to succumb to a 6–10 defeat.[36] Dott called for new rules to be brought in to combat slow play after the match.[37] Ebdon fell 10 places in the end of season rankings to world number 30.[38]

2013/2014

Peter Ebdon at the 2014 German Masters Ebdon had a slow start to the 2013/2014 season as in the opening four ranking events he lost in the first round twice and failed to qualify for the other two.[39] His form improved at the International Championship with victories over Jack Lisowski and Mark Joyce. Ebdon then held his nerve against Neil Robertson to win 6–5 after having led 5–3 and revealed afterwards that he was trying to speed up his game. Robertson called Ebdon an all-time great and stated that he could beat his quarter-final opponent Ding Junhui if he could play the same again.[40] Ding had won the previous two ranking events and, although the match lasted four hours, he beat Ebdon 6–3.[41] He couldn't advance beyond the second round of a ranking event until the penultimate tournament, the China Open.[39] Ebdon eliminated Jimmy Robertson 5–3 and won a deciding frame against Judd Trump, saying later that he proved he could still beat the best players in the game.[42] In the third round he was defeated 5–3 by Ali Carter.[43] Ebdon's proud 22-year playing streak in the World Championship ended this season as he lost 10–8 against Finland's Robin Hull to miss the event for the first time since turning professional.[44]

2014/2015

The 2014/2015 season was the first time since 1992/1993 that Ebdon failed to play in a ranking event quarter-final, with three last 16 finishes being his deepest runs.[45] He did have his best year so far in the minor-ranking European Tour as a quarter-final appearance at the Riga Open and a semi-final at the Bulgarian Open saw him ranked 13th on the Order of Merit, to make his debut at the Grand Final where he lost 4–1 to Anthony McGill in the first round.[46] At the non-ranking World Grand Prix, Ebdon made a 136 total clearance in the deciding frame of his first round match against Shaun Murphy and then defeated Stephen Maguire 4–1.[47] In the quarter-finals Ebdon was ousted 4–2 by Martin Gould.[48] He missed out on playing in the World Championship for the second year in a row as Stuart Carrington beat him 10–7 in the second qualifying round.[45]

2015/2016

At the UK Championship, Ebdon beat Lu Chenwei 6–0, Dominic Dale 6–5 and reigning world champion Stuart Bingham 6–3 to reach the fourth round, where he lost 6–2 to David Grace.[49][50] At 45, he was the oldest man in the field at the World Grand Prix, but knocked out Neil Robertson 4–3, before Ding Junhui whitewashed him 4–0 in the second round.[51] Ebdon eliminated James Wattana 10–6 in the first round of World Championship qualifying and then incredibly came back from 9–3 behind against Gerard Greene to win 10–9 just after 2am.[52] He qualified for the first time in three years by defeating Ian Burns 10–2 and lost 10–2 to Marco Fu in the opening round.[53][54]

Status
Ebdon was only the second player to have made two competitive maximum 147 breaks in professional tournament play – these coming at the Strachan Professional and UK Championship, both in 1992. In the same year, he became the first player to make four centuries in five frames.[55]

Ebdon is renowned for his strict fitness regime to condition himself for snooker, such as swimming one mile every day.[56] In 2012 he adopted a high-carbohydrate, vegan diet, partly to improve sporting performance.[57] In his first year of following the diet he lost two and a half stone and for September aimed to eat only raw food.[58] He is a devotee of Napoleon Hill's classic motivational book Think and Grow Rich.

Ebdon has been criticised in the past for his exuberant outpourings of emotion after winning important frames or matches. However, since one particular outburst after potting the match ball against Stephen Lee during their 2001 World Championship second round encounter – repeatedly punching the air and shouting "Come on!" at the top of his voice – he has toned down his celebrations significantly.

Ebdon is also colour blind. In a frame in which the brown ball is in close proximity to a red, he usually asks the referee for help on which ball is which. During a match against Simon Bedford in the 2008 Grand Prix, Ebdon inadvertently potted the brown believing it to be a red.[59] He made the same mistake in the final of the 2012 Australian Goldfields Open and again in the 2015 Indian Open.[31]

During the 2012 Australian Goldfields Open world number two Judd Trump labelled Ebdon's playing style as "a joke" after his second round 5–4 win over Ding Junhui took almost 5 hours to be completed. The average time between shots was over 30 seconds and the average frame time was 32 minutes.[28]

Personal life
Ebdon was born in Islington, before moving to Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. He started his career while at Highbury Grove School, resulting in him not taking his O levels – a decision he now regrets.[60] In 2005, he emigrated with his wife Deborah and four children: Ruby Mae, Ethan, Tristan and Clarissa, to Dubai and lived there until 2009.[61] On 22 January 2009 it was revealed that Ebdon had split with his wife by mutual consent.[62] In 2010 he remarried to Nora, who is Hungarian,[61] and has since become a vegan.[63]

In 1996, Ebdon recorded a version of the David Cassidy song "I Am a Clown", and it was released as a single.[64] He has also released a second single, "Fall of Paradise", with a video filmed at Burnley's Afterlife Club.[citation needed]

Performance and rankings timeline
Tournament

1991/ 92

1992/ 93

1993/ 94

1994/ 95

1995/ 96

1996/ 97

1997/ 98

1998/ 99

1999/ 00

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

Ranking[65][nb 1] UR[nb 2] 47 21 10 10 3 5 7 13 12 7 3 7 8 7 7 6 9 14 18 13 20 30 25 31 31 Ranking tournaments Riga Masters[nb 3] Tournament Not Held MR LQ Indian Open Tournament Not Held 1R 2R NH QF World Open[nb 4] 3R 3R W 3R 3R 1R 2R QF 3R 3R F 2R 2R 3R 2R RR QF 2R QF SF LQ 1R LQ Not Held 1R Paul Hunter Classic[nb 5] Tournament Not Held Pro-am Event Minor-Ranking Event WD Shanghai Masters Tournament Not Held 1R 1R 1R 2R 1R 1R LQ LQ 1R LQ European Open[nb 6] 1R 2R LQ 1R F QF Tournament Not Held 1R SF 1R 2R 1R SF NR Tournament Not Held English Open Tournament Not Held International Championship Tournament Not Held SF QF 3R 2R Irish Open Tournament Not Held 2R Tournament Not Held UK Championship LQ 1R 2R SF F 1R 3R 1R 3R 7R QF SF 3R 3R 3R W 1R 2R 2R 1R LQ LQ 2R 3R 4R Scottish Open[nb 7] NH 3R 1R 3R 1R SF 4R 3R 5R W SF 2R SF Tournament Not Held MR Not Held German Masters[nb 8] Tournament Not Held 2R LQ LQ NR Tournament Not Held 2R 1R 1R 2R 2R LQ World Grand Prix Tournament Not Held NR 2R Welsh Open LQ 1R SF SF QF 2R SF 3R SF 2R QF 1R 3R QF 2R 2R 2R 1R 1R 2R 1R 1R 1R 3R 2R Gibraltar Open Tournament Not Held MR Players Championship[nb 9] Tournament Not Held DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ 1R DNQ China Open[nb 10] Tournament Not Held NR 2R 1R 2R 1R Not Held 1R 2R 1R 2R W QF QF W 1R 3R 2R 1R World Championship QF 1R 1R QF F 1R QF 1R 1R QF W QF 1R SF F 2R QF 1R 1R 1R 1R 1R LQ LQ 1R Ranking & variant format tournaments Shoot-Out Tournament Not Held Variant Format Event Non-ranking tournaments The Masters LQ LQ QF SF 1R QF 1R 1R 1R QF QF 1R QF SF QF 1R QF 1R QF QF A A A A A Championship League Tournament Not Held A RR RR RR RR RR RR RR A  World Seniors Championship A Tournament Not Held 1R VF A A 1R 1R Variant format tournaments Six-red World Championship[nb 11] Tournament Not Held 1R 1R 1R NH RR A A A Former ranking tournaments Classic LQ Tournament Not Held Strachan Open[nb 12] 1R MR NR Tournament Not Held Dubai Classic[nb 13] 1R 3R QF F 2R QF Tournament Not Held Malta Grand Prix Not Held Non-Ranking Event 1R NR Tournament Not Held Thailand Masters[nb 14] 1R 1R QF QF SF W QF 2R LQ 1R 2R NR Not Held NR Tournament Not Held British Open LQ 3R 1R 3R QF SF 2R QF F W QF 3R 3R 2R Tournament Not Held Irish Masters Non-Ranking Event 2R W 1R NH NR Tournament Not Held Northern Ireland Trophy Tournament Not Held NR 2R QF 2R Tournament Not Held Bahrain Championship Tournament Not Held 1R Tournament Not Held Wuxi Classic[nb 15] Tournament Not Held Non-Ranking Event 1R 1R LQ Not Held Australian Goldfields Open[nb 16] Not Held NR Tournament Not Held 1R F LQ 2R LQ NH Former non-ranking tournaments German Masters[nb 8] Tournament Not Held Ranking Event 1R Tournament Not Held Ranking Event Malta Grand Prix Not Held SF W A A A R A Tournament Not Held Champions Cup[nb 17] Not Held 1R SF SF 1R 1R A A SF Tournament Not Held Scottish Masters A A A A F W QF QF LQ A 1R QF Tournament Not Held Northern Ireland Trophy Tournament Not Held 1R Ranking Event Tournament Not Held Irish Masters A A 1R W QF SF 1R SF A SF F Ranking Event NH A Tournament Not Held European Open[nb 6] Ranking Event Tournament Not Held Ranking Event RR Tournament Not Held R Wuxi Classic[nb 15] Tournament Not Held RR RR A QF Ranking Event Not Held Brazil Masters Tournament Not Held SF Tournament Not Held Premier League[nb 18] A RR A A SF SF A A A A A SF A A A A A A A A VF RR Tournament Not Held World Grand Prix Tournament Not Held QF Ranking Former variant format tournaments Shoot-Out Tournament Not Held 1R 1R 1R 1R 2R 2R RV

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 DQ disqualified from the tournament

NH / Not Held event was not held. NR / Non-Ranking Event event is/was no longer a ranking event. R / Ranking Event event is/was a ranking event. RV / Ranking & Variant Format Event means an event is/was a ranking & variant format 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. VF / Variant Format Event means an event is/was a variant format event.

1.Jump up ^ From the 2010/2011 season it shows the ranking at the beginning of the season. 2.Jump up ^ New players on the Main Tour don't have a ranking. 3.Jump up ^ The event was called the Riga Open (2014/2015–2015/2016) 4.Jump up ^ 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) 5.Jump up ^ The event was called the Grand Prix Fürth (2004/2005) and the Fürth German Open (2005/2006–2006/2007) 6.^ Jump up to: a b The event was called the Malta Cup (2004/2005–2007/2008) 7.Jump up ^ The event was called the International Open (1992/1993–1996/1997) and the Players Championship (2003/2004) 8.^ Jump up to: a b The event was called the German Open (1995/1996–1997/1998) 9.Jump up ^ The event was called the Players Tour Championship Grand Finals (2010/2011–2012/2013) and the Players Championship Grand Final (2013/2014–2015/2016) 10.Jump up ^ The event was called the China International (1997/1998–1998/1999) 11.Jump up ^ The event was called the Six-red Snooker International (2008/2009) and the Six-red World Grand Prix (2009/2010) 12.Jump up ^ The event was called the Strachan Challenge (1992/1993–1993/1994) 13.Jump up ^ The event was called the Thailand Classic (1995/1996) and the Asian Classic (1996/1997) 14.Jump up ^ The event was called the Asian Open (1991/1992–1992/1993) and the Thailand Open (1993/1994–1996/1997) 15.^ Jump up to: a b The event was called the Jiangsu Classic (2008/2009–2009/2010) 16.Jump up ^ The event was called the Australian Open (1994/1995) and the Australian Masters (1995/1996) 17.Jump up ^ The event was called the Charity Challenge (1994/1995–1998/1999) 18.Jump up ^ The event was called the Matchroom League (1991/1992) and the European League (1992/1993–1996/1997)

Career finals
Ranking event finals: 17 (9 titles, 8 runners-up)[edit]

Legend

World Championship (1–2) UK Championship (1–1) Other (7–5)

Outcome

No.

Year

Championship

Opponent in the final

Score

Winner 1. 1993 Grand Prix Republic of Ireland Ken Doherty 9–6 Runner-up 1. 1994 Dubai Classic Scotland Alan McManus 6–9 Runner-up 2. 1995 UK Championship Scotland Stephen Hendry 3–10 Runner-up 3. 1996 European Open England John Parrott 7–9 Runner-up 4. 1996 World Snooker Championship Scotland Stephen Hendry 12–18 Winner 2. 1997 Thailand Open England Nigel Bond 9–7 Runner-up 5. 1999 British Open Scotland Stephen Hendry 5–9 Winner 3. 2000 British Open England Jimmy White 9–6 Winner 4. 2001 Scottish Open Republic of Ireland Ken Doherty 9–7 Runner-up 6. 2001 LG Cup England Stephen Lee 4–9 Winner 5. 2002 World Snooker Championship Scotland Stephen Hendry 18–17 Winner 6. 2004 Irish Masters England Mark King 10–7 Runner-up 7. 2006 World Snooker Championship (2) Scotland Graeme Dott 14–18 Winner 7. 2006 UK Championship Scotland Stephen Hendry 10–6 Winner 8. 2009 China Open Scotland John Higgins 10–8 Winner 9. 2012 China Open (2) Scotland Stephen Maguire 10–9 Runner-up 8. 2012 Australian Goldfields Open England Barry Hawkins 3–9

Non-ranking wins: (4 titles) Irish Masters – 1995 Pontins Professional – 1995 Malta Grand Prix – 1995 Scottish Masters – 1996

Pro-am wins Vienna Snooker Open – 2015, 2016

Amateur wins IBSF World Under-21 Championship – 1990