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Fergal O'Brien

O'Brien plummeted 16 places down the ranking list to No 47 after a poor 2009/10 season.

He lost his opening match in each of the first three ranking events, though he did recover by winning one match in each of the last three.

After beating Alan McManus 10-4 in the final qualifying round of the Betfred.com World Snooker Championship, O'Brien summed up just how much pressure he and his fellow players are under.

"If you lose, you're wanting to pack the game in, and if you win you think you could go all the way. The difference is monumental, and there's also the ranking points on top of that," he said.

"In the hotel you can feel the worry among the players, there's almost a stench of death. Whoever can relax and just play snooker will come through it."

At the Crucible O'Brien put up a fair fight against eventual champion Neil Robertson but went down 10-5.

The Dubliner reached his first ranking event final in eight years with a brilliant run at the 2007 Northern Ireland Trophy in Belfast.

After beating Dave Harold, he scored a superb 5-4 win over John Higgins, finishing with two century breaks.

O’Brien went on to beat Barry Hawkins, Mark Allen and another of snooker’s big guns – Ronnie O’Sullivan – to earn his final place. “I’ve had a few lean years so to come back and be in the mix at this stage is great.”

He battled hard against Stephen Maguire but could manage only five frames in the best-of-17 encounter. "I felt great and I still enjoyed it. I hope this is the norm for me now and I don’t have to wait eight years for my next final. It’s been five years since I got to the quarters, let alone a final. Some people pigeon-hole me as a boring plodder but I hope I have shown this week that I’m more than that,” said O’Brien.

The Irishman had double cause for celebration during the 1998-99 season as he claimed his first major title and secured his place among the top 16 for the first time.
He showed all his battling qualities in the 1999 British Open, winning four of his six matches in the deciding frame then overcoming Anthony Hamilton 9-7 in the final.

In 2001, O’Brien came within one frame of winning the Masters at Wembley Conference Centre. Victories over Mark Williams, Ken Doherty and Dave Harold took him through to the final and he then led Paul Hunter 7-3 before losing a superb match 10-9 some 30 minutes after midnight.

He loves golf and names Ben Hogan one of his all-time heroes; once paraphrasing the nine-times major winner by saying: “Snooker’s not what I do. It’s who I am.”

He is also an enthusiastic runner with Lucan Harriers.

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