Neil Robertson

Neil Robertson (born 11 February 1982) is an Australian professional snooker player, who is a former world champion and former world number one.

He began his professional career in the 1998/1999 season.

At the age of 17, he reached the third qualifying round of the 1999 World Championship.

In July 2003, he won the World Under-21 Snooker Championship in New Zealand.

This earned him a vital wildcard spot on the subsequent WPBSA Main Tour.

In December, he won the qualifying tournament for a wildcard place at the 2004 Masters, where he was subsequently defeated 2–6 by Jimmy White in the first round.

Robertson lost his first quarter-final match to White too, at the 2004 European Open, by the scoreline of 3–5 this time.

In the 2004–05 season, he moved up to the top 32 in the rankings, reaching the final stages of six of the eight tournaments, despite having to play at least two qualifying matches for each one.

In two cases he got as far as the quarter-finals: at the 2005 Welsh Open, where he whitewashed Robert Milkins 5–0 in the first round, then went on to beat both Jimmy White and John Higgins 5–4, before suffering a 5–4 loss himself by the tournament's eventual winner, Ronnie O'Sullivan, after leveling the match from 4–1 behind; and at the 2005 Malta Cup, in which he defeated Mark Williams 5–1, then Jimmy White again by 5–2, but failed to achieve the same against John Higgins, as this time it was the Scotsman who beat the Australian 5–2.

At the end of the season, Robertson qualified for the 2005 World Championship, losing 7–10 to Stephen Hendry in the first round.

In 2005–06, he continued to progress, moving up to the top 16 of the rankings.

He reached his first semi-final at the 2005 Northern Ireland Trophy, where he led 4–1, but ended up losing 4–6 to Matthew Stevens, who went on to win the event.

Robertson also made it to the quarter-finals of the 2005 UK Championship, where he lost 9–5 to ultimate tournament winner Ding Junhui, and the 2006 World Championship, in which he fought back from 8–12 down to level at 12–12 against eventual champion Graeme Dott, before losing the final frame by inadvertently potting the final pink which he needed on the table in his attempts to snooker Dott.

He has claimed a career total of 23 ranking titles, having won at least one professional tournament every year between 2006 and 2022.

A prolific break-builder, Robertson has compiled over 900 century breaks in professional competition, including five maximum breaks.

He became the fourth player in professional snooker history to reach the 900-century mark, after Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Higgins and Judd Trump.

Robertson made his breakthrough in the 2006–07 season.

After finishing top of his group at the 2006 Grand Prix's round robin stage, losing only his opener match against Nigel Bond by 2–3, Robertson beat Ronnie O'Sullivan 5–1 in the quarter-finals.

He went on to the semis, being only the fourth Australian ever to do so in a ranking event.

He won 6–2 against Alan McManus to reach his first ranking final, where he faced a fellow first-time finalist, the unseeded Jamie Cope, whom he defeated 9–5 to win his first ever professional ranking tournament.

The win earned him £60,000, the highest amount of money he earned in one event up till that point.

Afterwards, he had early exits in both the 2006 UK Championship and the 2007 Masters, despite whitewashing Mark Williams 6–0 in the first round of the latter tournament, but he found his form again en route to the final of the 2007 Welsh Open.

He defeated Stephen Hendry 5–3, making a break of 141 in the last frame, then recovered from 3–4 down to overcome Ronnie O'Sullivan 5–4 in the quarter-finals.

After that he beat Steve Davis 6–3 in the semi-finals, and surprise finalist Andrew Higginson 9–8 in the final to take the title.

Robertson led 6–2 after the first session, then dropped six frames in a row to come within one frame of defeat, but took the remaining three frames to win the match.

At the season's end, he reached the second round of the 2007 World Championship, but lost 10–13 to Ronnie O'Sullivan despite winning six frames in a row at one stage.

Robertson started the 2007–08 season poorly, making early exits in three of the first four ranking events, as well as at the 2008 Masters and the 2008 Malta Cup.

He did reach the quarter-finals of the 2007 Northern Ireland Trophy though, after wins over Jamie Cope and Ian McCulloch, but there he lost 2–5 to Stephen Maguire.

His Welsh Open title defence also ended early, as he was defeated in the last 16 by Ali Carter 5–3, even though Robertson pulled back three frames in a row after being 4–0 down.

After a disappointing start to the 2008–09 season, Robertson reached the final of the 2008 Bahrain Championship, where he played Matthew Stevens.

The match lasted almost six hours in total, with the Australian edging it 9–7.

In the second half of the season, during their quarter-final match at the 2009 Masters, Robertson and opponent Stephen Maguire set a record of five consecutive century breaks.

Robertson made two centuries and Maguire made three, the latter sealing a 6–3 win over the Australian with his third.

Next month, Robertson reached the semi-finals of the 2009 Welsh Open, but lost to eventual runner-up Joe Swail.

At the 2009 World Championship, Robertson defeated Steve Davis, Ali Carter and Stephen Maguire to reach the semi-finals of the World Championship for the first time, before losing to Shaun Murphy 14–17, after recovering from 7–14 behind to level at 14–14.

In October 2009, Robertson clinched the 2009 Grand Prix trophy in Glasgow with a 9–4 win over China's Ding Junhui in the final.

To date, he is the most successful player from outside the United Kingdom, and the only non-UK born to have completed snooker's Triple Crown, having won the World Championship in 2010, the Masters in 2012 and 2022, and the UK Championship in 2013, 2015 and 2020.

He finished the season ranked 10th, but outside the top sixteen on the one-year list.

In the 2013–14 season, he became the first player to make 100 centuries in a single season, finishing with a record 103 centuries.

Robertson began his snooker career aged 14, when he became the youngest player to make a century break in an Australian ranking event.