David Gilbert

David Gilbert (born 12 June 1981) is an English professional snooker player.

He is a former World Snooker Young Player of Distinction and practises at Potters Snooker and Pool Club in Swadlincote, Derbyshire, a club which he co-owns.

Gilbert played in eight of the ten minor-ranking Players Tour Championship events, but could only win three matches all year, to finish a lowly 86th on the Order of Merit.

He couldn't repeat last season's run to The Crucible as he was defeated 6–10 by Marco Fu in the final round of World Championship Qualifying.

He ended the campaign ranked world number 41.

Gilbert began his professional career by playing UK Tour in 1999, at the time the second-level professional tour.

In the 2007–08 season Gilbert reached the last 32 of three tournaments without progressing further.

Most notably he qualified for the 2007 World Championship where he led Stephen Hendry 5–1, before succumbing to a 7–10 defeat.

To qualify he beat Alfie Burden, Gerard Greene and Mark King.

The other two were the 2007 Welsh Open – where he won his two qualifying matches then beat James Wattana in the last 48 in Newport, before losing 5–0 to Steve Davis – and the 2008 Grand Prix, where he again faced Hendry and again challenged him before succumbing 5–4.

Gilbert went one better at the 2009 Welsh Open, beating Mark Williams and Joe Perry before losing to Mark Selby in the last 16.

In the second round he was defeated by 2010 World Champion, Neil Robertson 9–13.

Gilbert had led 3–1 after the first four frames, but then trailed 3–5 and 6–10 after the first and second session respectively.

The 2011–12 season was somewhat of a breakthrough year for Gilbert as he reached the last 16 in two ranking event tournaments for the first time.

He went from qualifying round one to the venue stage of the first tournament of the year, the Australian Goldfields Open, beating Passakorn Suwannawat 5–4, Alfie Burden 5–2, Dave Harold 5–4 and Mark King 5–0 to set up a wildcard round match at the venue against James Mifsud, which was later changed to a last 32 encounter due to the withdrawal of Graeme Dott.

Gilbert won 5–1 to meet Mark Williams in the last 16, and was beaten 2–5.

Gilbert struggled to replicate the form he showed in Australia until the final and biggest tournament on the snooker calendar, the World Championship.

He qualified with victories over Stuart Carrington, Jimmy Robertson (with a final frame decider), Mike Dunn and Fergal O'Brien and drew 11th seed Martin Gould in the first round.

There he won his first-ever match at the Crucible 10–8, although he had to withstand two comebacks after leading 6–2 and 9–5.

Following on from Gilbert's successful 2011/2012 season, he struggled for form this season as he could only qualify for the World Open in Haikou, China.

There, he beat Lu Ning 5–0 in the wildcard round, before losing 4–5 to Matthew Stevens in the first round.

He finished the season ranked world number 57, inside the top 64 who automatically retained their places for the 2012–13 season.

Gilbert's 2013–14 season was his most consistent year to date as he qualified for all but two of the ranking events.

In his opening match, he defeated Jak Jones 5–3 to qualify for the 2013 Wuxi Classic in China where he beat Andrew Pagett 5–2 in the first round.

He went on to beat Alan McManus 5–2 to reach the last 16 of a ranking event for the fourth time but lost 5–2 to Joe Perry.

A month later at the minor-ranking Rotterdam Open, he defeated Ryan Day 4–3 in the last 16 and Stephen Maguire 4–1 in the quarter-finals.

Gilbert led Mark Selby 2–0 in his semi-final match, but was beaten 4–3.

Gilbert lost 5–3 to Stephen Maguire in the first round of the 2014 Wuxi Classic and then failed to qualify for the next two ranking events.

At the International Championship he defeated Zak Surety 6–4, before withstanding three century breaks from Marco Fu to take the match into a deciding frame which Gilbert lost.

He won his first matches at the UK Championship 6–4 against Elliot Slessor and 6–2 against Mark Joyce, but lost in the third round 6–2 to David Morris.

Gilbert was eliminated at the first round stage of the German Masters, Welsh Open and Indian Open.

He faced the winner of the previous ranking event Joe Perry at the China Open and won the last three frames to defeat him 5–3 and then saw off Zhou Yuelong 5–2 to reach the last 16 of a ranking event for the sixth time.

Having never previously been beyond the last 16 of a ranking event, Gilbert reached the final of the 2015 International Championship where he lost 5–10 to John Higgins.

The tournament was one of the eight European Tour events on the calendar and Gilbert performed well in the others with two further last 16 runs to finish 16th on the Order of Merit and qualify for the Finals for the first time in his career.

There, Gilbert gained revenge over Selby by whitewashing him 4–0, but lost 4–1 to Perry in the second round.

Gilbert played in his third World Championship this year after seeing off Jimmy Robertson in the final round of qualifying.

He faced the previous year's runner-up Barry Hawkins in the first round but from 4–2 up he lost eight frames in a row to succumb to a 10–4 defeat in a performance he branded as useless.

On 22 January 2019 he hit the milestone of the 147th maximum break in the Championship League.

On 4 May 2019 he narrowly missed out on his first ever World Snooker Championship final in a final frame decider, losing out 16–17 to John Higgins.

On 13 August 2021 Gilbert won his first world ranking title after 22 years of being a professional by winning the 2021 Championship League after beating Mark Allen 3–1 in the final.