Robin Hull

Robin Hull
Born (1974-08-16) 16 August 1974
Finland
Sport country  Finland
Nickname Roope
Professional 1993–97, 1998–2008, 2011–12, 2013–
Highest ranking 32 (2003/2004)
Current ranking 59 (as of 31 October 2016)
Career winnings £286,674[1]
Highest break 145 (1994 Grand Prix qualifying)
Century breaks 149[2]
Best ranking finish Quarter-finals (2003 Welsh Open, 2006 Malta Cup, 2014 Wuxi Classic)
Tournament wins
Non-ranking 2

Robin Hull (born 16 August 1974) is a Finnish professional snooker player.

For some time he was the sole Nordic player on the game's main tour. He is known as a solid break-builder, having compiled nearly 150 competitive centuries during his career, among the highest for a player who has never featured in the top 16 in the world rankings.

Hull is one of five players to have missed the final black in attempting a maximum break, alongside Ken Doherty, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, Barry Pinches and Mark Selby.[3]

Career

A professional since 1992, Hull came to prominence during the 2001/2002 season, as he reached the last 16 of the 2001 UK Championship, and later qualified for the 2002 World Championship, knocking out Steve Davis in the final qualifying round; in the first round proper, he lost 6–10 to Graeme Dott. These results allowed Hull to get into the world top 32 at the end of the next season.

A potentially fatal viral infection kept Hull out of much of the 2003/2004 season, although he still was able to reach his first ever quarter-final at the 2003 Welsh Open.[4] He later repeated this result at the 2006 Malta Cup. However, his performances were largely inconsistent due to his health issues. He was forced to pull out of qualifying for the 2007 World Championship due to an irregular heartbeat thought to be linked to his past illness.[5] After similar problems in the following season, he decided to retire from professional competition.[6] He started working as a snooker commentator on Finnish Eurosport, and opened a snooker club in his hometown of Espoo.

In February 2010 Hull took part in the pro-am Finnish Snooker Challenge, which featured a number of notable professionals. He impressed, beating Darren Morgan, Ken Doherty and Matthew Stevens on the way to the final, where he lost to Mark Williams. This result encouraged Hull to take part in the Q School tournament in 2011 in attempt to qualify for the 2011/2012 main tour, which he did successfully in the first event.[7] Due to lack of sponsorship he only played in a handful of events during the season with his best run coming in qualifying for the UK Championship in November where he beat Lucky Vatnani and Yu Delu, before losing to Peter Lines 4–6.[8] Hull did not enter another tournament after this and finished the season ranked world number 84, outside of the top 64 who retain their places for the 2012/2013 season and therefore did not retain his spot on the main tour.[9] In the 2012/2013 season Hull entered qualifying for the World Championship as an amateur, where he lost in the first round of preliminary qualifying 2–5 to Paul Wykes, despite making a 137 break during the match.[10][11]

Hull regained his main tour place for the 2013/2014 season by winning the EBSA European Snooker Championships in Zielona Góra, Poland, beating Welshman Gareth Allen 7–2 in the final, finishing the match with two consecutive centuries.[12] He qualified for the 2013 International Championship by beating Liu Chuang 6–2, although he had to withdraw from the venue stages in China, and came close to beating the reigning world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan in the last 64 of the minor-ranking Kay Suzanne Memorial Cup, losing 4–3 after leading 3–1. However, Hull failed to win any other match at the rest of the tournaments, and due to financial reasons skipped most of the second part of the season until the World Championship, where he delivered his best performances in years.[13] He scored an impressive 10–3 win against Tony Drago in the first round, followed by a 10–6 defeat of Tian Pengfei, and a 10–4 win from 3–0 behind against Ian Burns in round three, to set up a final round match against Peter Ebdon, which Hull won 10–8 to reach the Crucible for the second time in his career.[13][14] He played O'Sullivan in the last 32 and lost 10–4, despite making a century in one of the frames.[15]

The 2014/2015 season began well for Hull. He defeated Xiao Guodong, Graeme Dott and Cao Yupeng to reach the quarter-finals (the third of his professional career and first for eight years) of the 2014 Wuxi Classic where he lost 5–2 to eventual runner-up Joe Perry.[16][17] Hull won most of his opening round matches in the subsequent tournaments, but failed to progress beyond the last 64 stage until the 2015 China Open where he received a bye to the last 32 after Ronnie O'Sullivan's withdrawal, and defeated Mark King 5–4 to reach the last 16, where he lost 5–1 to Kurt Maflin.[16]

Due to missing most of the previous season, Hull arrived at the season-ending World Championship qualifiers needing a repeat of the previous year's performance to retain his tour card by getting into the top 64 of the world rankings. He did exactly that, as he beat Martin McCrudden, Ben Woollaston and Igor Figueiredo to qualify for the Crucible for the second year in a row.[18][19] He was defeated 10–3 by Shaun Murphy in the first round, but was ranked 61st in the world afterwards.[20][21]

Hull did not participate in many tournaments at the start of the 2015/2016 season. His first win came at the UK Championship, where he defeated Zhang Anda 6–4 in the first round, followed by a 6–3 victory over world number eight Barry Hawkins.[22] He was defeated in the third round 6–2 by Luca Brecel, his efforts earning him £9,000.[23] At the Shoot-Out, the tournament in which every match is decided by a single 10-minute frame, Hull won his first professional title by beating Brecel in the final. The winner's prize of £32,000 is the highest pay day of his career.[24]

Personal life

Hull was born and raised in Finland, to a Finnish mother and English father.[25]

Performance timeline

Tournament 1993/
94		 1994/
95		 1995/
96		 1996/
97		 1997/
98		 1998/
99		 1999/
00		 2000/
01		 2001/
02		 2002/
03		 2003/
04		 2004/
05		 2005/
06		 2006/
07		 2007/
08		 2011/
12		 2012/
13		 2013/
14		 2014/
15		 2015/
16		 2016/
17
UK Championship LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R 3R 3R LQ 1R 1R LQ 3R WD LQ A 1R 2R 3R 2R
World Championship LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R LQ WD LQ LQ WD WD A LQ 1R 1R LQ
Performance Table Legend
LQ lost in qualifying draw #R lost in the early rounds of the tournament
(WR = Wildcard round)
QF advanced to but not past the quarterfinals SF advanced to but not past the semi-finals
F advanced to the final, tournament runner-up W won the tournament
NH event was not held A did not participate in the tournament

Career finals

Non-ranking wins: (2)

Amateur event finals: 4 (3 titles, 1 runner-up)

Outcome Year Championship Opponent in the final Score
Winner 1992 IBSF World Under-21 Snooker Championship Belgium Patrick Delsemme 11–7
Runner-up 1993 1993 European Championships England Neil Mosley 6–8
Winner 1997 1997 European Championships Iceland Kristján Helgason 7–3
Winner 2013 2013 European Championships Wales Gareth Allen 7–2

Pro-am event finals: 1 (1 title)

Outcome Year Championship Opponent in the final Score
Winner 2000 2000 Austrian Open England Matthew Couch 5–1

References

  1. ↑ "Robin Hull". CueTracker - Snooker Database. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
  2. ↑ "Centuries". Pro Snooker Blog. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
  3. ↑ Near-miss for Mark Selby in easy win over Mark King in China
  4. ↑ "Snooker: Hull conquers Higgins" (The Independent)
  5. ↑ World Snooker News: Hull withdraws from Prestatyn qualifiers
  6. ↑ BBC Sport: Ailing Hull quits snooker circuit
  7. ↑ "Hull Back On Pro Tour". worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association.
  8. ↑ "Robin Hull 2011/2012". Snooker.org. Retrieved 24 May 2012.
  9. ↑ "Official World Ranking List for the 2012/2013 Season" (PDF). Retrieved 24 May 2012.
  10. ↑ "Robin Hull 2012/2013". Snooker.org. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
  11. ↑ "Betfair World Championship Pre-Qualifiers". World Snooker. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
  12. ↑ "European Snooker Championships Men – Zielona Góra/Poland 2013 – knockout results". European Billiards and Snooker Association. Retrieved 6 June 2013.
  13. 1 2 "Robin Hull 2013/2014". Snooker.org. Retrieved 6 May 2014.
  14. ↑ "World Snooker Championship: Peter Ebdon fails to reach Crucible". BBC Sport. Retrieved 6 May 2014.
  15. ↑ "World Snooker Championship: Ronnie O'Sullivan beats Hull". BBC Sport. Retrieved 6 May 2014.
  16. 1 2 "Robin Hull 2014/2015". Snooker.org. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
  17. ↑ "Hull of a Performance". World Snooker. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  18. ↑ "Sweet 16 Through to Sheffield". World Snooker. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  19. ↑ "Swail, Hull Climb Into Top 64 Contention". WPBSA.com. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  20. ↑ "Shaun Murphy enjoying 'buzz' of World Snooker Championships as he makes last 16". nottinghampost.com. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
  21. ↑ "World Rankings After 2015 World Championship". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 8 May 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  22. ↑ "Barry Hawkins: 'UK snooker tables are only good for burning'". Eurosport. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
  23. ↑ "2015 UK Championship". CueTracker. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
  24. ↑ "Flying Finn is Shoot-Out King". World Snooker. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
  25. ↑ "Snooker: Contenders wait on O'Sullivan's shoulder" (The Independent)

External links

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