Robin Hull (born 16 August 1974) is a Finnish former professional snooker player.
For some time, he was the sole Nordic player on the game's main tour. He is known as a solid -builder, having compiled over 150 competitive during his career, among the highest for a player who has never featured in the top 16 in the world rankings.
Hull is one of six players to have missed the final black in attempting a maximum break, alongside Ken Doherty, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (three times), Barry Pinches, Mark Selby and Liang Wenbo.
Career Hull became a professional snooker player in 1992. In the 2001–02 season, he reached the last 16 of the 2001 UK Championship, and later qualified for the 2002 World Championship, knocking out Steve Davis in the final qualifying round; in the first round proper, he lost 6–10 to Graeme Dott. These results contributed to Hull entering the world top 32 at the end of the next season.
A potentially fatal viral infection kept Hull out of much of the 2003–04 season, although he still was able to reach his first ever quarter-final at the 2003 Welsh Open. He later repeated this result at the 2006 Malta Cup. However, his performances were largely inconsistent due to his health issues. He was forced to pull out of qualifying for the 2007 World Championship due to an irregular heartbeat thought to be linked to his past illness. After similar problems in the following season, he decided to retire from professional competition.
In February 2010 Hull took part in an invitation event the Finnish Challenge, which featured a number of notable professionals. He impressed, beating Darren Morgan, Ken Doherty and Matthew Stevens on the way to the final, where he lost 1–6 to Mark Williams. This result encouraged Hull to take part in the 2011 Q School tournament in an attempt to qualify for the 2011–12 main tour, which he did successfully in the first event. Due to lack of sponsorship he only played in a handful of events during the season with his best run coming in qualifying for the 2011 UK Championship in November where he beat Lucky Vatnani and Yu Delu, before losing to Peter Lines 4–6. Hull did not enter another tournament after this and finished the season ranked world number 84, outside of the top 64 who retain their places for the 2012–13 season and therefore did not retain his spot on the main tour. In the 2012–13 season Hull entered qualifying for the World Championship as an amateur, where he lost in the first round of preliminary qualifying 2–5 to Paul Wykes, despite making a 137 break during the match.
Hull regained his main tour place for the 2013–14 season by winning the EBSA European Snooker Championships in Zielona Góra, Poland, beating Welshman Gareth Allen 7–2 in the final, finishing the match with two consecutive centuries. He qualified for the 2013 International Championship by beating Liu Chuang 6–2, although he had to withdraw from the venue stages in China, and came close to beating the reigning world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan in the last 64 of the minor-ranking Kay Suzanne Memorial Cup, losing 4–3 after leading 3–1. However, Hull failed to win any other match at the rest of the tournaments, and due to financial reasons skipped most of the second part of the season until the World Championship, where he delivered his best performances in years. He scored an impressive 10–3 win against Tony Drago in the first round, followed by a 10–6 defeat of Tian Pengfei, and a 10–4 win from 3–0 behind against Ian Burns in round three, to set up a final round match against Peter Ebdon, which Hull won 10–8 to reach the Crucible for the second time in his career. He played O'Sullivan in the last 32 and lost 10–4, despite making a century in one of the frames.
The 2014–15 season began well for Hull. He defeated Xiao Guodong, Graeme Dott and Cao Yupeng to reach the quarter-finals (the third of his professional career and first for eight years) of the 2014 Wuxi Classic where he lost 5–2 to eventual runner-up Joe Perry. Hull won most of his opening round matches in the subsequent tournaments, but failed to progress beyond the last 64 stage until the 2015 China Open where he received a bye to the last 32 after Ronnie O'Sullivan's withdrawal, and defeated Mark King 5–4 to reach the last 16, where he lost 5–1 to Kurt Maflin.
Due to missing most of the previous season, Hull arrived at the season-ending World Championship qualifiers needing a repeat of the previous year's performance to retain his tour card by getting into the top 64 of the world rankings. He did exactly that, as he beat Martin McCrudden, Ben Woollaston and Igor Figueiredo to qualify for the Crucible for the second year in a row. He was defeated 10–3 by Shaun Murphy in the first round, but was ranked 61st in the world afterwards.
Hull did not participate in many tournaments at the start of the 2015–16 season. His first win came at the 2015 UK Championship, where he defeated Zhang Anda 6–4 in the first round, followed by a 6–3 victory over world number eight Barry Hawkins. He was defeated in the third round 6–2 by Luca Brecel, his efforts earning him £9,000. At the Shoot-Out, the tournament in which every match is decided by a single 10-minute frame, Hull won his second professional title by beating Brecel in the final. The winner's prize of £32,000 is the highest pay day of his career.
His Shoot-Out success allowed him to compete in the 2016 Champion of Champions, where he lost 4–2 to Ronnie O'Sullivan in the first round. His only last 16 appearance this year came at the German Masters after he followed qualifying wins over Luca Brecel and Matthew Stevens with a 5–4 victory over Jimmy White, before losing 5–4 to Ryan Day. In the first round of World Championship qualifying, Hull suffered a huge 10–8 shock defeat to 11-time ladies world champion Reanne Evans.
Personal life
Hull was born and raised in Finland, to a Finnish mother and an English father.
Performance and rankings timeline Tournament 1993/94 1994/95 1995/96 1996/97 1997/98 1998/99 1999/00 2000/01 2001/02 2002/03 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20RankingFrom the 2010/2011 season it shows the ranking at the beginning of the season.New players on the Main Tour don't have a ranking.212128132He was an amateur.10110286393247555054736159Players qualified One Year Ranking List started the season without ranking points.76Ranking tournamentsRiga MastersThe event was called the Riga Open (2014/2015–2015/2016)Tournament Not HeldMRLQ2R1RAInternational Championship Tournament Not HeldAWDALQ1R1RLQAChina ChampionshipTournament Not HeldNRLQLQAEnglish OpenTournament Not Held1R1R1RAWorld OpenThe event was called the Grand Prix (1992/1993–2000/2001 and 2004/2005–2009/2010), the LG Cup (2001/2002–2003/2004) and the Haikou World Open (2011/2012–2013/2014)1RLQLQ1RA2RLQLQ2R1R2RLQ1RRRLQAALQNot Held1RLQLQANorthern Ireland OpenTournament Not Held3R3R3RAUK ChampionshipLQLQLQLQALQLQLQ3RLQ1R1RLQ3RWDLQA1R2R3R2R1R1RAScottish OpenThe event was called the International Open (1992/1993–1996/1997) and the Players Championship (2003/2004)1RLQLQLQALQLQLQLQLQWDTournament Not HeldMRNot Held3R1R2RAEuropean MastersThe event was called the Irish Open (1998/1999) and Malta Cup (2004/2005–2007/2008)LQLQLQLQNHLQNot HeldLQ1RWDLQQFLQNR Tournament Not Held1RLQLQAGerman MastersThe event was called the German Open (1995/1996–1997/1998)Not HeldLQLQAATournament Not HeldWDALQLQLQ1RLQLQAWorld Grand PrixTournament Not HeldNRDNQDNQDNQDNQDNQWelsh OpenLQLQLQLQALQLQLQLQQF1R1RLQLQWDAAA2R2R3RWD1RAShoot-OutTournament Not HeldNon-Ranking Event2RWDWDAPlayers ChampionshipThe event was called the Players Tour Championship Grand Finals (2011/2012–2012/2013) and the Players Championship Grand Final (2013/2014–2015/2016)Tournament Not HeldDNQDNQDNQDNQDNQDNQDNQDNQDNQGibraltar OpenTournament Not HeldMRAA3RATour ChampionshipTournament Not HeldDNQDNQWorld ChampionshipLQLQLQLQLQLQLQLQ1RLQWDLQLQWDWDALQ1R1RLQLQLQLQLQ Non-ranking tournamentsChampion of ChampionsTournament Not HeldAAA1RAAAThe MastersLQLQLQLQLQLQLQLQLQLQLQALQLQLQAAAAAAAAAWorld Seniors ChampionshipTournament Not HeldAALQAAAAA Former ranking tournamentsDubai ClassicThe event was called the Thailand Classic (1995/1996) and the Asian Classic (1996/1997)LQLQLQLQTournament Not HeldMalta Grand PrixNHNon-Ranking EventLQNRTournament Not HeldThailand MastersThe event was called the Asian Open (1992/1993) and the Thailand Open (1993/1994–1996/1997)ALQLQ1RALQLQLQLQNRNot HeldNRTournament Not HeldBritish OpenLQLQLQLQLQLQLQLQ2RLQLQ1RTournament Not HeldIrish MastersNon-Ranking EventLQWD1RNHNRTournament Not HeldNorthern Ireland TrophyTournament Not HeldNRLQLQTournament Not HeldWuxi ClassicThe event was called the Jiangsu Classic (2008/2009–2009/2010)Tournament Not HeldNRAAQFNot HeldAustralian Goldfields OpenThe event was called the Australian Open (1994/1995) and the Australian Masters (1995/1996)NHNRTournament Not HeldLQAALQANot HeldShanghai MastersTournament Not HeldLQLQLQLQLQLQLQLQNRPaul Hunter ClassicThe event was called the Grand Prix Fürth (2004/2005) and the Fürth German Open (2005/2006–2006/2007)Tournament Not HeldPro-am EventMinor-Ranking EventWD1RANRIndian OpenTournament Not HeldLQ1RNH1R1R1RNHChina OpenThe event was called the China International (1997/1998–1998/1999)Tournament Not HeldNRALQLQLQNot HeldLQLQLQWDAAA2RWDLQLQLQNH Former non-ranking tournamentsBelgian MastersNot Held1RTournament Not HeldFinnish MastersNot Held1RTournament Not HeldMalta MastersNot HeldQFTournament Not HeldMalaysian MastersNot HeldQFTournament Not HeldMalta Grand PrixNHAAAAARLQTournament Not HeldScottish MastersAAAAAAAAALQTournament Not HeldTournament Not HeldNHA2RAAAAAAShoot-OutTournament Not HeldAAAAWRanking Event Performance Table LegendLQ lost in the qualifying draw#R lost in the early rounds of the tournament(WR = Wildcard round, RR = Round robin)QF lost in the quarter-finalsSF lost in the semi-finalsF lost in the finalW won the tournamentDNQ did not qualify for the tournamentA did not participate in the tournamentWD withdrew from the tournament NH / Not Held means an event was not held.NR / Non-Ranking Event means an event is/was no longer a ranking event.R / Ranking Event means an event is/was a ranking event.MR / Minor-Ranking Event means an event is/was a minor-ranking event.
Career finals Non-ranking finals: 2 (2 titles) Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final ScoreWinner 1. 2002 WPBSA Open Tour – Event 3 Colm Gilcreest 5–4Winner 2. 2016 Snooker Shoot Out Luca Brecel 1–0
Pro-am finals: 1 (1 title)
Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final ScoreWinner 1. 2000 Austrian Open Matthew Couch 5–1
Amateur finals: 12 (11 titles) Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final ScoreWinner 1. 1992 IBSF World Under-21 Championship Patrick Delsemme 11–7Winner 2. 1992 Finnish Amateur Championship Jyri Virtanen 5–0Runner-up 1. 1993 EBSA European Championship Neil Mosley 6–8Winner 3. 1997 EBSA European Championship Kristján Helgason 7–3Winner 4. 2005 Finnish Amateur Championship (2) Risto Värynen 5–4Winner 5. 2009 Finnish Amateur Championship (3) Kimmo Lang 4–0Winner 6. 2011 Finnish Amateur Championship (4) Antti Mannila 4–0Winner 7. 2013 Finnish Amateur Championship (5) Kimmo Lang 5–0Winner 8. 2013 EBSA European Championship (2) Gareth Allen 7–2Winner 9. 2014 Finnish Amateur Championship (6) Kimmo Lang 5–4Winner 10. 2018 Finnish Amateur Championship (7) Antti Tolvanen 4–1Winner 11. 2020 Finnish Amateur Championship (8) Heikki Niva 4–0
References
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