Quinn has sights on Crucible after third place in Morocco

Fergal Quinn has earned a place at the World Championship qualifiers next month after finishing third at the World Amateur Snooker Championships in Morocco.

The Brockagh man was edged out in the semi-finals by eventual champion, China’s Yang Gao, who earned a two-year Tour card and became the first player ever to win the junior and senior world amateur titles a year after losing out in the final.

Their last four clash proved something of a roller-coaster for Quinn, who battled back from 3-1 down to make it 3-2 with a sensational 90 break before engineering a 54-5 lead in the sixth frame to seemingly take the match down to a decider.

Unfortunately for him, Gao and ‘Lady Luck’ had other ideas as the Chinese player rattled in not one but two ‘doubles’ en route to snatching the frame by a point 55-54 and ultimately a place in the final, which he then won 5-3 over Brian Cini to claim the coveted crown and with it a two-year card to play on the main professional Tour.

While a little disappointed to have missed out on the final and the incredible prize that came with victory in that, Quinn, who had considered not even travelling to North Africa for the event, was more than pleased with his efforts in Morocco.

“I had an amazing run and I really enjoyed it out there,” he beamed.

“Obviously I was a bit gutted to lose the semi-final because it was so close,” he observed.

“I was nearly guaranteed for 3-3 and he did get quite a bit of the run of the ball throughout the semi-final but he played an amazing first frame and I went 2-0 down without doing much wrong.

“It was always going to be very tough from there because he’s a full-time Chinese player and I had barely practiced.

“But it was an amazing clearance from Gao to beat me. I was 54-5 in front and he cleared up – he doubled the red and doubled the brown, it was a freak clearance.

“It was gutting to go out like that but fair play to him in the end.

“It wasn’t meant to be but I’m proud of how I handled the whole thing and how I played. I was one of the heaviest scorers over there with 14 or 15 breaks over 50, I took my chances and was very gritty in every match.

“Even with a more relaxed attitude, I still showed a lot of steel throughout. Although I’m gutted to have gone out so close to the Tour card, I’m still appreciative and grateful that I got that far.”

Twenty-four-year-old Quinn went into the tournament with little to no expectations, having only decided to travel to Saidia fairly late in the day, approaching the event with that ‘more relaxed attitude’, which is a mindset that has served him well so far this season and so it proved again.

“I wasn’t even going to go because I had barely touched my cue over Christmas with my sister home from Australia and stuff,” he explained.

“Sometimes other things take priority but it was my dad who said ‘just go and enjoy yourself, see how it goes and just try your best’.”

The decision to travel to Morocco keen to do well, but without any pressure given his late decision to compete and on the back of little to know practice during the festive season but the talented cueman, who won his first Northern Ireland Ranking event earlier this season, immediately earned positive results.

He cruised through his group, losing just one frame en route after beating England’s Sean O’Sullivan 3-1, Belgium’s Lhabouze Guillaume 3-0 and Dutchman Amar Chedoe by the same margin to set up a last-64 clash with Hong Kong’s Lee Tsz Ho, who he blitzed 4-0.

His emphatic victories came alongside some heavy scoring, with Quinn registering eight half-century or higher breaks up to that stage, including a high of 104 against Chedoe.

He continued to prove at one with the green baize in north Africa in the last-32 where he defeated another Belgian, Oliver Pechenart, 4-2, with two more 60-plus breaks helping his cause before he booked his place in the quarter-finals with a narrow 4-3 triumph over Singapore’s Jaden Ong, which was earned thanks to a nerveless if not fortunate 56 break in the decider.

As the business end of the tournament drew closer, so too did the quality of Quinn’s opponents and the closeness of the encounters, which forced him to dig deep again in the last-eight against Austria’s Florian Nuessle, who he beat 4-3, thanks to breaks of 65 and 60 in the last two frames, which earned his place in the qualifiers for the Crucible in April.

“It was a huge, huge match with Florian in the quarter’s just to guarantee myself into the World Championships and have something to look forward to,” beamed Quinn, who was delighted with his mental fortitude in the latter stages of the tournament.

“I have to win a few matches to get to the Crucible, which is only for the top 16 and qualifiers, but it’s something to look forward to and some more opportunities.

“But I could have been out before then because, in the last-16, I was 3-1 up and he came back to 3-3 and I was 44 or 45 behind [in the final frame] but I took out the best 56 dish in my life, it was ridiculous. It was an amazing break, all or nothing.

“They all went in and I couldn’t believe it when the last black went in. It was an amazing feeling.

“And against Florian I was 3-2 down but I had back-to-back 60s, so I handled the pressure so well. I’m very proud of all that and how far I went.

“Even with a more relaxed attitude, I still showed a lot of steel throughout.

“Although I’m gutted to have gone out so close to the Tour card, I’m still appreciative and grateful that I got that far.”

After achieving a prized place in the World Championship qualifiers, the semi-finals beckoned and he faced one of the pre-event favourites in Gao, who ultimately lived up to that billing when recording a 4-2 victory, but it wasn’t a comfortable win for the Chinese player, who saw Quinn smash in a break of 90 to make it 3-2 before engineering a big lead in the next only for the eventual champion to clinch victory by just one point in frame six on a 55-54 scoreline.

Quinn had been considering taking a break from the game while he thinks about his next step – in life as well as in the sport – but his success in Morocco and a place at the World Championship qualifiers have made him reassess that particular thought.

“The game keeps pulling me back in!,” he said with a laugh.

“It shows something that I need to give myself a chance with the game, to commit to it for a year or two and see where it can actually get me because I’m actually just freewheeling at the minute.”

Ahead of his attempt to qualify for the World Championships, Quinn will play in the event seven of the Q-Tour before competing in event five of the Northern Ireland Ranking series in Derry.

And he feels his growing maturity will hold him in good stead throughout those three events as it has all season long, during which he has got the monkey off his back to win his first ever NI Ranking event title.

“I think I’ve learnt a lot over the last five or six months in life in general,” he explained.

“I haven’t done anything different, but my mental strength is a lot stronger, I’ve grown up a lot.

“The more pain I’ve been through has made me stronger. I lost in six finals [before winning his first title] so it’s all good. It’s all building blocks that are needed, so bring on the pain!”