Daniel Wells (snooker player)

Daniel Wells

Daniel Wells at the 2013 German Masters
Born (1988-07-21) 21 July 1988
Sport country  Wales
Professional 2008–10, 2011–2014, 2015–
Highest ranking 69 (August 2016–present)
Current ranking 67 (as of 31 October 2016)
Career winnings £38,247[1]
Highest break 136 (2015 German Masters Qualifying)
Century breaks 43[1]
Best ranking finish Last 16 (2016 World Open)

Daniel Wells is a Welsh professional snooker player, from Neath. He has twice come through Qualifying School to play on the professional snooker tour.

Career

Early career

He was awarded the inaugural Paul Hunter Scholarship.[2] This gave him the chance to practise in the World Snooker Academy in Sheffield, alongside professional players, such as Peter Ebdon and Ding Junhui.

He first qualified for the Main Tour for the 2008/2009 season by finishing ranked fifth on the International Open Series rankings.

2008/2009

He had consistent results on his first spell on the main tour, winning his first qualifying match in most events, apart from defeat in the first qualifying round to Stefan Mazrocis in the Grand Prix. This was followed by a run to the penultimate qualifying round of the Bahrain Championship where he lost to veteran John Parrott 3–5.

An impressive run to the last 16 of the Masters Qualifying tournament included a 5–4 win over Crucible quarter-finalist Liang Wenbo. He followed this with a defeat to Li Hang in the first qualifying round of UK Championship 3–9.

However, at the World Championship, Wells needed a good run of results to ensure his place on the tour for the following season. A sequence of 10–9 wins over Li Hang, Ian Preece and Marcus Campbell took him to the final qualifying round where he lost 9–10 to Barry Hawkins in the final qualifying match. In his 4 qualifying matches, he played the maximum 76 frames. His ranking rose to No. 70 as a result of his exploits that season.

2009/2010

Wells started the new season with a win over fellow Welshman Ian Preece 5–3 in the Shanghai Masters before losing to Joe Delaney in the next round by the same scoreline. In the UK Championship, he narrowly lost 8–9 to fellow Welshman Michael White. In his home championship, the Welsh Open, Wells narrowly lost in the first qualifying round to James Wattana 4–5. Another first qualifying round defeat in the China Open meant that Wells was again in danger of losing his place on the tour. Wells failed to repeat his exploits of the previous season in the World Championship as he lost 7–10 to former world No. 12 David Gray in the first qualifying round. This meant that he fell off the tour.

2010/2011

Despite not being on the main tour during the 2010/2011 season Wells entered many of the PTC and EPTC events, and managed to record some impressive wins eventually finishing 29th on the Order of Merit.[3] He regained a place on the main tour for 2011/2012 by finishing top of the Welsh rankings.[4] Wells also won the European Snooker Championships and the European Team Championships (with team Wales).[5]

2011/2012

As an unranked player on the tour Wells would need to win four qualifying matches to reach the main draw of the ranking events. However, he only managed to win three matches during the season, including going without a single victory in the 11 of 12 Players Tour Championship events that he played.[6][7] He finished the season without a ranking and had to enter Q School in an attempt to earn a place on the tour for the 2012/2013 season.[8] In May, Wells won five matches at the second Q School event concluding with a 4–3 win over Michael Wasley to earn a place on the tour for the next two seasons.[6]

Daniel Wells at the 2013 German Masters.

2012/2013

Wells did not win two consecutive matches in qualifying for any of the ranking events in the 2012/2013 season, and therefore did not reach the main draw for any tournaments.[9] He played in all ten Players Tour Championship events this season, with his best results being two last 64 defeats, to be placed 101st on the PTC Order of Merit.[10] His season ended when he was beaten 7–10 by Aditya Mehta in the first round of World Championship Qualifying which saw him finish ranked world number 87.[11][12]

2013/2014

Wells lost in the qualifying rounds of the first five ranking events in the 2013/2014 season, but received automatic entry into the UK Championship as all 128 players began the tournament in the first round. It was here that Wells won the first match at a main venue for the first time in his career by defeating Alfie Burden 6–4, but he then lost 6–3 to Joe Perry.[13] The only event Wells qualified for this season was the German Masters, with an impressive 5–1 victory over Nigel Bond, before he was eliminated in the first round 5–1 by Gary Wilson.[13] After Wells was beaten 10–7 by Kurt Maflin in the second round of World Championship qualifying he was ranked world number 100 meaning he could no longer reach the top 64 and was relegated from the tour.[14] He played in Q School in an attempt to regain his place and came closest to doing so in the second event when he lost in the last 16 to Ashley Carty.[13]

2014/2015

Wells was back to being an amateur player for the 2014/2015 season, but still considered himself as a professional as he was playing for his living.[15] He faced Ronnie O'Sullivan in the first round of the UK Championship and, despite his opponent playing with a broken ankle, Wells was beaten 6–2.[16] He lost 4–2 to Gerard Greene in the first round of the Welsh Open.[17] Wells qualified for his first China Open by defeating Robbie Williams 5–3 and lost the last three frames in the first round against Graeme Dott to be eliminated 5–3.[18] At Event 1 of Q School he eliminated Alexander Ursenbacher 4–1 in the final round to earn a two-year tour card starting with the 2015/2016 season.[19]

2015/2016

Wells played in his first International Championship by beating Rory McLeod 6–1 and advanced through a wildcard round in China, before losing 6–4 to Lee Walker in the first round.[20] He won three matches to reach the last 16 of the Bulgarian Open where he was eliminated 4–0 by Mike Dunn. He would finish 39th on the European Order of Merit.[21] Wells saw off Rod Lawler 6–4 at the UK Championship, despite abandoning his car due to traffic and running to the venue before the match.[22] He lost 6–3 to Ali Carter in the second round. Wells reached the same stage of the Welsh Open by beating Andrew Higginson 4–2, but was knocked out 4–1 by Marco Fu.[20]

Performance and rankings timeline

Tournament 2008/
09 		2009/
10 		2010/
11		 2011/
12 		2012/
13 		2013/
14		 2014/
15		 2015/
16		 2016/
17
Ranking[23][nb 1] UR[nb 2] 70 UR[nb 3] UR[nb 2] UR[nb 4] 87 100[nb 3] UR[nb 2] 87
Ranking tournaments
Riga Masters[nb 5] Tournament Not Held Minor-Ranking LQ
Indian Open Tournament Not Held LQ LQ NH 1R
World Open[nb 6] LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ Not Held 3R
Paul Hunter Classic Pro-am Minor-Ranking Event A
Shanghai Masters LQ LQ A LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ
European Masters Tournament Not Held LQ
English Open Tournament Not Held 2R
International Championship Tournament Not Held LQ LQ LQ 1R 2R
Northern Ireland Open Tournament Not Held 1R
UK Championship LQ LQ A LQ LQ 2R 1R 2R 2R
Scottish Open Tournament Not Held MR Tournament Not Held
German Masters Not Held 1R LQ LQ 1R LQ LQ
World Grand Prix Tournament Not Held NR DNQ
Welsh Open LQ LQ A LQ LQ 1R 1R 2R
Gibraltar Open Tournament Not Held MR
Players Championship[nb 7] Not Held DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ
China Open LQ LQ A LQ LQ LQ 1R LQ
World Championship LQ LQ A LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ
Ranking & variant format tournaments
Shoot-Out Not Held Variant Format Event
Non-ranking tournaments
The Masters LQ LQ A A A A A A
Former ranking tournaments
Northern Ireland Trophy LQ Tournament Not Held
Bahrain Championship LQ Tournament Not Held
Wuxi Classic[nb 8] Non-Ranking Event LQ LQ LQ Not Held
Australian Goldfields Open Tournament Not Held LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ 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.
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. ↑ From the 2010/2011 season it shows the ranking at the beginning of the season.
  2. 1 2 3 New players on the Main Tour don't have a ranking.
  3. 1 2 He was an amateur.
  4. ↑ Players qualified through Q School started the season without ranking points.
  5. ↑ The event was called the Riga Open (2014/2015–2015/2016)
  6. ↑ The event was called the Grand Prix (2008/2009–2009/2010)
  7. ↑ The event was called the Players Tour Championship Grand Finals (2010/2011–2012/2013) and the Players Championship Grand Final (2013/2014–2015/2016)
  8. ↑ The event was called the Jiangsu Classic (2008/2009–2009/2010)

Other

In 2009 Wells recorded a series of snooker tutorial videos at the World Snooker Academy. These were launched as a subscription based online coaching program in February 2010 under the name of SnookerGuide.co.uk.

References

  1. 1 2 "Career-total Statistics for Daniel Wells – Professional". CueTracker Snooker Results & Statistics Database. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
  2. ↑ "Wells secures Hunter Scholarship". BBC Sport. 3 May 2007. Retrieved 17 July 2007.
  3. ↑ "Order of Merit". WWW Snooker. 17 October 2010. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
  4. ↑ "2011/12 Tour Players". World Snooker. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. 17 May 2011. Retrieved 17 May 2011.
  5. ↑ "Past Champions". Euroipean Billiards and Snooker Association. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  6. 1 2 "Daniel Wells 2011/2012". Snooker.org. Retrieved 23 May 2012.
  7. ↑ "Order of Merit". Snooker.org. 8 January 2012. Retrieved 23 May 2012.
  8. ↑ "Official World Ranking List for the 2012/2013 Season" (PDF). Retrieved 23 May 2012.
  9. ↑ "Daniel Wells 2012/2013". Snooker.org. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  10. ↑ "Issued after Munich Open 2013 (ET6)" (PDF). World Snooker. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. 7 January 2013. Retrieved 27 May 2013.
  11. ↑ "Betfair World Championship Qualifiers". Snooker.org. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
  12. ↑ "Official World Snooker Ranking List for the 2013/2014 Season" (PDF). World Snooker. Retrieved 24 May 2013.
  13. 1 2 3 "Daniel Wells 2013/2014". Snooker.org. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  14. ↑ "World Snooker Rankings After the 2014 World Championship" (PDF). World Snooker. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
  15. ↑ "UK Snooker: Daniel Wells savoring the prospect of facing Ronnie O'Sullivan". The Press. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  16. ↑ "Ronnie O'Sullivan beats Wells 6–2 at UK Championship after breaking ankle". Sky Sports. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  17. ↑ "Daniel Wells 2014/2015". Snooker.org. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  18. ↑ "Selby Wins Despite Neck Pain". World Snooker. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  19. ↑ "Quartet Earn Tour Cards". World Snooker. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
  20. 1 2 "Daniel Wells 2015/2016". Snooker.org. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  21. ↑ "European Order of Merit 2015/2016". Snooker.org. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  22. ↑ "Daniel Wells battles through in UK Snooker Championship". South Wales Evening Post. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
  23. ↑ "Ranking History". Snooker.org. Retrieved 6 February 2011.

External links

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