Rory McLeod

He finished 36th on the PTC Order of Merit, outside of the top 26 who qualified for the Finals.

McLeod ended the season by losing 9–10 to Sam Baird in the third round of World Championship Qualifying, to be placed at number 45 in the world rankings.

Rory McLeod (born 26 March 1971) is a British-Jamaican professional snooker player.

After working for ten years he reached the Main Tour professional ranks for the 2001/2002 season.

McLeod has reached the last 16 of eight ranking tournaments.

His best results of 2004/2005 were 2 last-48 runs, the Welsh Open run including a victory over Shaun Murphy.

The first of these was the 2005 Grand Prix although this victory against a noticeably ill Paul Hunter was bittersweet.

He narrowly missed out on a place in the last 16 of the 2007 Grand Prix, losing on frame difference in his group to Barry Hawkins.

He qualified for the 2008 UK Championship by beating Jimmy White and Dave Harold where he played Ronnie O'Sullivan.

He slipped 6–0 down before launching a comeback by winning five consecutive frames (including three successive centuries), but ultimately lost 9–6.

Later in the season he defeated Ian McCulloch to qualify for the World Championship for the first time in 2009, becoming the first black player to have done so.

He faced Mark King in the first round but despite putting in a resilient performance lost 10–6.

However, his performances throughout the season saw him rise to his highest ranking yet of 39.

In 2009 he won the Masters Qualifying Event, beating Andrew Higginson 6–1 in the final, to earn a place at the final stages of the 2010 Masters where he lost 6–3 to Mark Williams.

He followed this up by qualifying for the UK Championship, being knocked out in the first round by Neil Robertson.

McLeod qualified for the World Snooker Championship for the second time in 2011, and was drawn against seeded player Ricky Walden in the first round.

McLeod won the match 10–6 to set up a second-round match with world No. 1 John Higgins.

Walden was more responsible for the pace of the match.

McLeod was ultimately defeated by the eventual champion John Higgins 13–7 in the second round.

McLeod qualified for the 2011 Australian Goldfields Open, and beat Peter Ebdon in the first round 5 frames to 3, before going out to Shaun Murphy in the second round.

McLeod qualified for the 2011 UK Championship by beating Barry Hawkins 6–2.

He was drawn against three-time UK winner John Higgins and led 4–2 before the scoreline became 5–5.

In the deciding frame Higgins "" two balls, one when escaping and McLeod would ultimately lose the match 6–5.

McLeod also reached the China Open where he played Higgins in the first round again and lost 1–5.

He finished the season ranked world number 38.

His highest ranking is 32, which he last reached in 2012.

McLeod qualified for the Australian Goldfields Open and the China Open during the 2012–13 season.

In Australia he lost 4–5 in the first round to Stephen Lee and in China he had his best run of the season, beating Hu Hao 5–1 in the wildcard round, Matthew Stevens 5–2 in the first round, before losing 3–5 to Shaun Murphy in the last 16.

McLeod played in all 10 of the minor-ranking Players Tour Championship events, with his best finish coming at the fifth European Tour Event, where he lost 0–4 by John Higgins in the quarter-finals.

McLeod lost 5–3 to Mark King in the first round of the 2013 Wuxi Classic and 5–2 to Robert Milkins in the second round of the Australian Goldfields Open to start the 2013–14 season.

He qualified for three other Chinese ranking events during the year, losing in the first round of the International Championship and China Open.

At the World Open, McLeod came through a wildcard round match against Zhao Xintong and then narrowly beat Tom Ford 5–4, before world number one Neil Robertson knocked him out 5–1.

McLeod was beaten 5–4 by Michael Holt after having been 4–2 ahead in the first round of the 2014 Wuxi Classic.

He defeated Lee Walker, Andrew Pagett and Ken Doherty on his way to qualifying for the Australian Goldfields Open and lost 5–2 to Judd Trump in the opening round.

McLeod failed to qualify for the next two ranking events, before knocking out Ian Burns 6–2 and Zhang Anda 6–5 at the UK Championship.

His second last 32 match of the season went into the early hours and it was Matthew Selt who ended McLeod's tournament with a 6–4 win.

McLeod met Ronnie O'Sullivan in the second round of the Welsh Open after seeing off Andrew Pagett 4–2.

He led 2–0, before O'Sullivan won four unanswered frames.

He has reached the last 16 in ten ranking tournaments, and his most notable achievement came in 2015, when he won the minor ranking Ruhr Open, beating Tian Pengfei in the final.

Having suffered relegation from the main tour at the end of the 2018-2019 season, McLeod spent the 2019-20 season playing on the World Seniors Tour and Challenge Tour; he regained his professional status at the 2020 Q School.