Barry Hawkins

Barry Hawkins (born 23 April 1979) is an English professional snooker player who is the current World No. 1. 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 eleven successive seasons ranked inside the top 32, and seven in the top 16.

He went on to win his first ranking title, the 2011 International Championship, and then reached his second ranking final in the same season at the 2011 World Open, where he lost 3-5 to Stuart Bingham. He won his second ranking event at the 2013 Shanghai Masters, before winning the 2013 Riga Open in the 2013 Tour of Europe.

He reached the 2014 World Championship final, before being beaten 13-18 by Ronnie O'Sullivan. Reaching the final ensured he was ranked 4th at the beginning of the 2014/15 season. In January 2015, Hawkins won his first Triple Crown even of his career, defeating Judd Trump 10-7 to win The Paul Hunter Masters. In the 2015/16 season, Hawkins won back-to-back ranking event titles by winning the 2015 Thailand Open and the 2015 Scottish Open, thus becoming world number one for the first time in his career.