Alain Robidoux

Career

Robidoux was born on 25 July 1960 in Canada. He joined the professional snooker circuit in the 1987–88 snooker season as a "non-tournament" professional. This entitled him to play only in the World Championship. He amassed enough points in the 1988 World Championship qualifiers to finish in the top 128 players, which allowed him to join the tour full-time.

In September 1988, Robidoux became only the sixth player ever to record an officially ratified 147 maximum break, achieved in the qualifying rounds of the European Open. He won the Canadian Professional Championship by defeating Jim Wych 8–4 in the final. He reached the semi-finals of the Grand Prix in October 1988, where he won six consecutive frames from 1–8 down against Alex Higgins, but ultimately lost the match 7–9.

In the first round of the 1996 World Championship, Robidoux was beaten 3–10 by Ronnie O'Sullivan in a controversial match. Although predominantly right-handed, O'Sullivan played a number of shots with his left hand, and the behaviour was described by commentator John Virgo as O'Sullivan "taking the mick". The matter came to a head in the eleventh frame, when Robidoux was 2–8 down and he was declining to concede the frame, instead continuing to despite a 43-point deficit with only the and on the table. He refused to shake O'Sullivan's hand at the end of the match. In response, O'Sullivan claimed that he played better with his left hand than Robidoux could with his right. Realising that O'Sullivan was able to play equally well with both hands, Robidoux later apologised to him.

In the 1996–97 season, Robidoux reached the final of the 1996 German Open, but he lost 7–9 to O'Sullivan despite making a tournament-best 145 break. That same season, he progressed to the semi-finals of the 1997 World Snooker Championship, defeating Brian Morgan, Stefan Mazrocis and Lee Walker, before losing to eventual champion Ken Doherty. He finished the season 9th in the world rankings, which was to be his career-best ranking position. However he then endured a torrid 1997–98 season, losing all his matches and did not win a match again until the following season at the 1999 Welsh Open, where he reached the last 16.

He lost his professional status in 2004 after placing 102nd in the rankings.{{cite web |access-date=17 January 2010

Performance and rankings timeline

Career finals

Ranking finals: 1

Non-ranking finals: 1 (1 title)

Team finals: 1 (1 title)

Amateur finals: 7 (7 titles)

References

References

1. (2004). "The CueSport Book of Professional Snooker: The Complete Record & History". Rose Villa Publications.
2. Everton, Clive. (2 January 1988). "Canadian in by the back door". The Guardian.
3. Turner, Chris. (21 September 2009). "Pigeon gets snookered".
4. "Official 147s". World Snooker.
5. "Other National Professional Championship". Chris Turner's Snooker Archive.
6. Everton. (24 October 1988). "Davis sights slam". The Guardian.
7. (22 April 1996). "Anger over left-leaning O'Sullivan".
8. (16 July 2020). "Ronnie O'Sullivan: 'People thought I was taking the Mickey when I started playing left-handed'".
9. Everton, Clive. (16 December 1996). "O'Sullivan scoops the army pool". [[The Guardian]].
10. "Alain Robidoux". snooker.org.
11. (June 2004). "O'Sullivan is new world no. 1 by a street...". Everton's News Agency.
12. "Robidoux at a dead end".
13. "Ranking History". Snooker.org.