Zhang Anda

Zhang Anda

Zhang Anda at the 2012 Paul Hunter Classic
Born	(1991-12-25) December 25, 1991 (age 25)
Sport country	China
Nickname	Mighty Mouse
Professional	2009–11, 2012–
Highest ranking	65 (May 2016)
Current ranking	73 (as of 18 December 2016)
Career winnings	£140,295
Highest break	139 (2012 APTC3)
Century breaks	44
Best ranking finish	Last 16 (2013 Australian Goldfields Open, 2016 German Masters, 2016 World Open and 2016 UK Championship)
Tournament wins
Non-ranking	2

Zhang Anda (born 25 December 1991) is a Chinese professional snooker player, who made his debut on the Main Tour for the 2009/2010 season. He qualified by winning the ACBS Asian Under-21 Championship.

Standing at 5 ft. 3 in. tall, he is nicknamed "Mighty Mouse". Zhang lives in Romford, England, during the snooker season and is managed by Grove Leisure, practising at their Academy facility which is also based in Romford.

The 2009/2010 season was Zhang's first professional season on the tour. His first match was a 2–5 defeat to Craig Steadman in the first qualifying round of the Shanghai Masters. His first wins came over Ben Woollaston (5–3) and Jin Long (5–2) during qualifying for the Grand Prix. He was then eliminated by Welshman Dominic Dale 0–5. He also reached the same stage in Welsh Open qualifying having beaten Matthew Couch 5–2 and Mark Joyce 5–4 before losing 2–5 to Marcus Campbell.

Zhang comfortably beat Craig Steadman 10–4 in his first match of World Championship qualifying, scoring his first century of the season in the penultimate frame. He then beat veteran John Parrott 10–6 in the next round. He made a second century, a 113, as he won the last five frames to progress. In the penultimate qualifying round, he beat Andrew Higginson 10–8 in a topsy turvy match. Zhang led 7–3 scoring a 114 in the process before Higginson went ahead 8–7. Zhang took the last three to go through to the final qualifying round. Ricky Walden, provisionally in the top 16 before the tournament, was Zhang's last obstacle to overcome. The first 16 frames were shared before a 134 break in frame 17 and a 103 break in frame 18 for Zhang resulted in a 10–8 victory. This meant that he would be only the fourth Chinese player to play at The Crucible and the lowest ranked player (number 71) to qualify for tournament. He is also one of only a few players to make it to The Crucible in their debut season. This result denied Walden a top 16 place for the following season. Zhang was drawn against seven-time World Snooker champion Stephen Hendry in the first round of the event. Zhang was 0–4 down in the match but rallied to trail only 4–5 after the first session. Hendry increased his lead to 7–5 before Zhang won four frames in a row to be on the cusp of a famous win. He wasted a chance to take the match in the next frame and went on to lose 9–10. Zhang ended the season ranked world number 71.