Born |
Ditton, Kent |
23 April 1979
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Sport country | England |
Nickname | The Hawk |
Professional | 1996/1997, 1998/1999, 2000– |
Highest ranking | 4 (March–May and June–July 2014) |
Current ranking | 14 (as of 31 October 2016) |
Career winnings | £1,656,367 |
Highest break | 147 (2 times) |
Century breaks | 219 |
Tournament wins | |
Ranking | 2 |
Minor-ranking | 1 |
Non-ranking | 4 |
Barry Hawkins (born 23 April 1979) is an English professional snooker player from Ditton in Kent. He turned professional in 1996, but only rose to prominence in the 2004/2005 snooker season, when he reached the last 16 of the 2004 UK Championship, the quarter-finals of the 2004 British Open, and the semi-finals of the 2005 Welsh Open. He has now spent eight successive seasons ranked inside the top 32. He reached his first ranking final and won his first ranking title at the 2012 Australian Goldfields Open.
Hawkins has played in the televised stages of every World Championship since he made his Crucible Theatre debut in 2006. He lost in the first round on his first five appearances, but reached the second round in 2011 and 2012. Rated an 80–1 outsider for the 2013 World Snooker Championship before the tournament began, he surprised many by defeating opponents including world number 1 Mark Selby and top Chinese player Ding Junhui to reach the final, which he lost to defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan. Hawkins has since reached the semi-finals the following two years running.
Before taking up snooker professionally he was an office clerk. He reached the Top 32 in the rankings in 2004/2005, having reached the semi-finals of 2005's Welsh Open, as well as the last sixteen of three other tournaments.
In 2005/2006, he reached the semi-finals of the Grand Prix and the Welsh Open again, and also beat the high-ranked Ding Junhui to qualify for the World Championship for the first time. This cemented Hawkins' place in the Top 16 of the rankings for the 2006/2007 season.