Mark Davis (snooker player)

Mark Davis

Mark Davis at the 2015 German Masters
Born	(1972-08-12) 12 August 1972 (age 44)
Sport country	England
Professional	1991–
Highest ranking	12 (June 2013 and March–May 2014)
Current ranking	31 (as of 18 December 2016)
Career winnings	£1,198,715
Highest break	147 (2 times)
Century breaks	217
Best ranking finish	Semi-final (x4)
Tournament wins
Non-ranking	5

Mark Davis (born 12 August 1972) is an English professional snooker player from St. Leonards in Sussex, England. Davis became professional in 1991 but for many years was considered something of a journeyman; however, he vastly improved his game in the late 2000s, and as a result managed to get in the top 16 for the first time in 2012. The highlights of his career so far have been winning the Benson & Hedges Championship in 2002 (earning him an appearance at the Masters), and the six-red snooker world championships three times (in 2009, 2012 and 2013).

Davis is the oldest snooker player to make an official maximum break of 147 points in a professional competition, at the age of 44 years and 202 days. He broke his own previous record of 44 years and 151 days, setting his second maximum break 51 days after his first.

Davis came close to losing his Main Tour status in the late 1990s, but recovered in the early 2000s to return to the top 48. Reaching the quarter-finals of the 2001 Regal Scottish tournament, his second career quarter-final, was the main catalyst for this. His success in reaching the 2008 World Championship came after 2 poor seasons, leaving him at No. 58 in the rankings. He opened the 2008/2009 season strongly by qualifying for the 2008 Northern Ireland Trophy and defeating local hope Joe Swail 5–4 in the first round, before beating Ding Junhui 5–4 in the last 32 in one of the best wins of his career. He was beaten in the last 16 5–2 by Ali Carter. He followed this up by also qualifying for the Bahrain and UK Championships, though he was forced to pull out early in his last-32 match against Joe Perry in the latter, due to a stomach upset. He exceeded his 2007/2008 ranking points total after only five of the eight events of the 2008/2009 season. In 2009 Davis won the Six-Red World Championship. In 2010, Davis reached the second round of the World Championship for the first time in 15 years by defeating sixth seed Ryan Day.