Jamie Cope
 Jamie Cope at the 2012 Paul Hunter Classic |
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| Born | ) 12 September 1985 Longton, Stoke-on-Trent |
|---|---|
| Sport country |  England |
| Nickname | The Shotgun |
| Professional | 2002– |
| Highest ranking | 13 (September 2010 and December 2010–February 2011)[1][2] |
| Current ranking | 38 (as of 7 May 2013) |
| Career winnings | GB£301,678[3] |
| Highest break | 147 (3x) |
| Best ranking finish | Runner up: (2006 Grand Prix, 2007 China Open) |
| Tournament wins | |
| Non-ranking | 2 |
Jamie Cope (born 12 September 1985 in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England) is an English professional snooker player. He has reached the finals of two ranking tournaments. He has a fast, entertaining style of play, being nicknamed "Shotgun" due to his speed around the table and aggressive playing style.[4]
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Career
Early career
Cope had an impressive record as a junior, but dropped off the Main Tour after two largely unsuccessful seasons. However, he finished top in the Challenge Tour for emerging players in the 2004/05 season, winning two of its four tournaments. This enabled him to return to the Main Tour. His stated intention in pre-season was to finish the year in the Top 48, a tough target which he technically achieved by default after Paul Hunter's illness. He reached the last 16 of the season-opening Grand Prix tournament. Later in the 2005/2006 season he reached the same stage of the Welsh Open and China Open. Those three last-16 defeats were all 5–4. During the season he claimed wins over Joe Perry, Steve Davis, John Parrott and Alan McManus.
Cope has the distinction of being the first player in snooker history to post a verified 155 break achieved in a practice frame in 2005.[5]
2006–present
On 23 October 2006, Cope made a 147 break in a match against Michael Holt during the Grand Prix in Aberdeen, Scotland. He was only the third player to achieve a 147 in the tournament's history, after Ronnie O'Sullivan and John Higgins. (Tom Ford has since become the fourth man to make a 147 at the Grand Prix, on 15 October 2007.) After progressing from the group stages, Cope defeated Robert Milkins in the last-16 to reach his first quarter-final in ranking events. He beat Joe Perry again in a closely fought match which required a deciding ninth frame. Eventually, Cope won after a slip-up by Perry on the yellow. In the semi-finals, Cope defeated Mark King 6–3, but he lost 5–9 to Australian competitor Neil Robertson in the final. Cope had struggled early in the match and fell 2–8 behind. He briefly rallied to claim the next three frames, but Robertson won the fourteenth frame to clinch the title.On 31 March 2007, Cope progressed into the final of the China Open against Graeme Dott, after beating Barry Hawkins on the last black (not respotted) of the final frame in the semi-finals, after requiring a snooker. However, he lost the final, again by 5 frames to 9.
In the 2007/2008 season, he reached the last 32 of the Shanghai Masters losing 2–5 to John Higgins. He failed to progress beyond the group stages in the Grand Prix 2007, finishing 6th in his group due to not winning a match. In the UK Championship Cope produced a very good performance in beating the then world number one John Higgins 9–3 in the last 32. He then beat Barry Hawkins 9–8 in the last 16 before losing to eventual champion, Ronnie O'Sullivan in the Quarter-finals. He made his World Championship debut in 2008, losing 10–9 to Peter Ebdon in the first round.
At the 2008 Shanghai Masters he scored the second competitive 147 of his career against Mark Williams, but lost their last-16 match 2–5. In the 2009 World Championship, Cope beat Joe Perry in the first round 10–6 and was close to upsetting twice world champion John Higgins in the second round. He was 12–10 up and was looking good to win the match, but ultimately Higgins surged back to win 13–12. This meant that he finished the season ranked at #18, still unable to break into the elite top 16. In 2009/2010 season he never progressed beyond the second round of a ranking tournament. Although he qualified for World Championship, he lost 10–4 in the first round to Ali Carter. On top of this, an unexpected run to the final by Graeme Dott meant that Dott overtook Cope in the rankings and left Cope outside of the world's top 16 for another season, albeit at a career high ranking of 17th.
In the 2010/2011 season, the two-year ranking system was replaced with a rolling ranking, meaning that Cope was finally able to reach the top 16 in October 2010. Cope made his debut at the Masters, where he reached the semi-final stage with wins over Shaun Murphy and Mark King. He played Ding Junhui in the semi-final, but lost 3–6.[6] He was knocked out of the World Championship in the last 16 following a 4–13 loss to Mark Williams, but despite this he finished the season ranked 15.[7][8]
Cope began the 2011/2012 season with a first round loss in the Australian Goldfields Open and a second round defeat in the Shanghai Masters, resulting in him losing his place in the top 16 after the first rankings cut-off in October, as he was placed number 18.[9][10] Therefore, Cope was now required to win a qualifying match to reach the main draw of the ranking events. He failed to do this in the next three tournaments, losing to Joe Jogia, Yu Delu and Ken Doherty, in attempting to qualify for the UK Championship, German Masters and Welsh Open respectively.[9] Cope stopped the rot by beating Jamie Burnett to earn a place in the World Open, held in Haikou, China. He played Martin Gould in the first round and, after finding himself 2–4 down, produced a comeback to win the last three frames to set up a last 16 clash with John Higgins. Cope could not continue his run in the tournament however, as he was whitewashed 0–5 by the reigning world champion. Cope also qualified for the China Open, but was this time on the wrong end of a 4–5 scoreline, as he was edged out by Neil Robertson in the first round. Cope's season came to an end soon after this, as he lost in qualifying for the World Championship to Liu Chuang.[9] He was ranked world number 27, meaning he had dropped 12 places during the year, the most of any player who finished the season inside the top 32.[11]
Cope's best finishes of the 2012/2013 season were last 16 defeats in the first three ranking events of the year, which did include a 5–1 victory over world number one Mark Selby in the first round of the Shanghai Masters.[12][13] In the rest of the season Cope struggled for form as he lost his qualifying match in the next three ranking events and although he could qualify for the World Open and the China Open, he lost 2–5 in the first round to Graeme Dott in the former and 2–5 in the wildcard round to Zhao Xintong in the latter.[12] Cope played in eight of the ten Players Tour Championship events, but could not advance beyond the last 16 in any of them to finish 50th on the PTC Order of Merit.[14] His season ended when he lost 3–10 to world number 70 Dechawat Poomjaeng in the final round of World Championship Qualifying.[15]
Career finals
Ranking event finals: 2 (2 runner-ups)
Non-Ranking Wins (2 Titles)
References
External links
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