Michael Wild (born 27 March 1981) is an English former professional snooker player.

Michael Wild
Born (1981-03-27) 27 March 1981 (age 43)
Sport country England
Professional2003/2004, 2015–2017
Highest ranking85 (June 2016)[1]
Best ranking finishLast 32 (x2)

Career

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During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Wild competed in the Challenge Tour and International Open Series events, without much success until the 2002/2003 season, when he reached the last 16 at Challenge Tour events 1 and 2; these performances were sufficient for him to earn a place on the sport's main tour, which he took up in 2003.

Wild's first season as a professional brought little success itself, his best finish a run to the last 80 in the British Open, where he beat Kristján Helgason and Munraj Pal, before losing to Mike Dunn.[2] He won only £3,850 prize money during the season and, finishing it ranked 121st, fell off the tour.

Several years of attempting to qualify again for the main tour through the International Open Series followed; during the 2005/2006 season, he reached the semi-finals in Event 1 - losing 1–5 to Martin Gould - and the quarter-finals in Event 3, where Liu Song beat him 5–2. Another semi-final came in 2007, before Wild recorded his first run to the final of a tournament, in Event 4 of that year's series. There his opponents included Robert Stephen and David Grace, but in the final, he lost 3–6 to Matthew Couch.

With the advent of the Players Tour Championship in the 2010–11 season, Wild found form after another lean period, recording two last-64 finishes - in Event 2 and EPTC1, where he lost 2–4 to Dave Harold and 1–4 to Ricky Walden respectively. He entered Q-School in 2011 and reached the quarter-finals of the second event, but, leading David Morris 3–1 and requiring only one more win to return to the tour, eventually lost 3–4.[3]

Having fared better in Q-School the following year, Wild was invited to play in several ranking events in 2012–13 season as a top-up amateur, and competed in his first such event in eight years at the 2012 Wuxi Classic qualifying stage. He was drawn to play Craig Steadman and led 2–0, but could not prevent a 3–5 defeat. In the 2012 Australian Goldfields Open, he came within one win of reaching the televised stages in Bendigo, beating Daniel Wells 5–0, Simon Bedford 5–2 and six-time World Champion Steve Davis 5–0, but lost in the final round 0–5 to Ken Doherty.

Wild enjoyed further success at the 2012 Paul Hunter Classic, where he defeated Jordan Brown, Marcus Campbell and Scott Donaldson before being eliminated in the last 16, losing 3–4 to Doherty.[4] The two would meet in another two matches during the season, both of these also resulting in 4–3 victories for Doherty - in the 2012 Scottish Open and the Munich Open.

In 2015, Wild won the EBSA European Snooker Championship, beating Jamie Clarke 7–4 in the final, to win back his place on the main tour after twelve years away.[5]

In his first season back on the tour, Wild produced the finest performance of his career in whitewashing former world number one Judd Trump 6–0 in the 2015 International Championship qualifying round,[6] but lost all seven of his matches thereafter - 0–6 to Sanderson Lam in the next qualifying round, by the same scoreline to Dominic Dale in the UK Championship, 3–5 to Anthony McGill in the German Masters, 3–4 to Jimmy Robertson in the Welsh Open, 2–4 to Mark King in the Gdynia Open, 2–5 to Tom Ford in the China Open and 6–10 - having trailed 0–9 - to Michael Holt in the World Championship. As a result, he ended the season ranked 110th.

He recorded his first victory of the 2016–17 season in the 2016 European Masters, defeating Cao Yupeng 4–3 from 1–3 behind, and followed this with a similar deciding-frame win over Jamie Jones from 0–3 behind, to reach the televised stages of a ranking tournament for the first time in his career.

Performance and rankings timeline

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Tournament 1997/
98
1998/
99
1999/
00
2000/
01
2001/
02
2002/
03
2003/
04
2004/
05
2010/
11
2011/
12
2012/
13
2013/
14
2015/
16
2016/
17
2017/
18
2018/
19
Ranking[7][nb 1] [nb 2] [nb 2] [nb 2] [nb 2] [nb 2] [nb 2] [nb 3] [nb 2] [nb 2] [nb 2] [nb 2] [nb 2] [nb 3] 83 [nb 2] [nb 2]
Ranking tournaments
Riga Masters Tournament Not Held MR LQ A A
World Open[nb 4] A A A A A A LQ A A A LQ A NH LQ A A
Paul Hunter Classic Tournament Not Held PA Minor-Ranking Event 1R LQ 1R
European Masters[nb 5] Not Held A LQ A Tournament Not Held 1R A A
English Open Tournament Not Held 1R A A
International Championship Tournament Not Held A A 1R LQ A A
Northern Ireland Open Tournament Not Held 1R A A
UK Championship A A A A A A LQ A A A A A 1R 1R A A
Scottish Open[nb 6] A A A A A A LQ Tournament Not Held MR Not Held 1R A A
German Masters Tournament Not Held A A A A LQ LQ A A
World Grand Prix Tournament Not Held DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ
Welsh Open A A A A A A LQ A A A A A 1R 1R A A
Shoot-Out Tournament Not Held Non-Ranking Event 1R A A
Indian Open Tournament Not Held A NH LQ A A
Players Championship[nb 7] Tournament Not Held DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ
Gibraltar Open Tournament Not Held MR 1R 3R A
Tour Championship Tournament Not Held DNQ
China Open[nb 8] NR A A A A Not Held A A A LQ A LQ LQ A A
World Championship LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ A A A A LQ LQ A A
Non-ranking tournaments
The Masters LQ A A A LQ LQ LQ A A A A A A A A A
Former ranking tournaments
British Open A A A A A A LQ Tournament Not Held
Irish Masters Non-Ranking Event A A LQ A Tournament Not Held
Wuxi Classic Tournament Not Held Non-Ranking LQ A Tournament Not Held
Australian Goldfields Open Tournament Not Held A LQ A LQ Not Held
Shanghai Masters Tournament Not Held A A A A LQ LQ A NH
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
NH / Not Held means an event was not held.
NR / Non-Ranking Event means an event is/was no longer a ranking event.
R / Ranking Event means an event is/was a ranking event.
MR / Minor-Ranking Event means an event is/was a minor-ranking event.
  1. ^ From the 2010/2011 season it shows the ranking at the beginning of the season.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m He was an amateur.
  3. ^ a b New players on the Main Tour do not have a ranking
  4. ^ The event ran under the names Grand Prix (1997/1998–2000/2001 and 2004/2005) and LG Cup (2001/2002–2003/2004)
  5. ^ The event also ran under the names Irish Open (1998/1999), European Open (2001/2002–2003/2004) and Malta Cup (2004/2005)
  6. ^ The event ran under the name Players Championship (2003/2004)
  7. ^ The event ran under the name Players Tour Championship Grand Finals (2010/2011–2012/2013) and the Players Championship Grand Final (2013/2014–2015/2016)
  8. ^ The event ran under the name China International (1998/1999)

Career finals

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Pro-am finals: 1 (1 title)

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Outcome Year Championship Opponent in the final Score
Winner 2006 Dutch Open   Mark King 6–5

Amateur finals: 2 (1 title)

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Outcome Year Championship Opponent in the final Score
Runner-up 2007 PIOS - Event 4   Matthew Couch 3–6
Winner 2015 EBSA European Amateur Championship   Jamie Clarke 7–4

References

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  1. ^ "WORLD RANKINGS After 2016 Kaspersky Riga Masters". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 1 July 2016. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
  2. ^ "CueTracker - Michael Wild - Season 2003-2004 - Professional Results - Snooker Results & Statistics Database".
  3. ^ "CueTracker - 2011 Q School - Event 2 - Snooker Results & Statistics Database".
  4. ^ "CueTracker - 2012 European Tour - Event 1 - Snooker Results & Statistics Database".
  5. ^ "Prague gone Wild - EBSA Web Site". Archived from the original on 14 June 2015. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
  6. ^ "Trump thrashed by Wild in qualifiers". BBC Sport.
  7. ^ "Ranking History". Snooker.org. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
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  • Michael Wild at CueTracker.net: Snooker Results and Statistic Database