Oliver Lines

Oliver Lines

Lines at the 2014 Paul Hunter Classic
Born	(1995-06-16) 16 June 1995 (age 29) Seacroft, Leeds, England[1]
Sport country	England
Professional	2014–present
Highest ranking	53 (December 2016)[2]
Current ranking	82 (as of 16 December 2024)
Best ranking finish	Semi-final (2024 British Open)

Oliver Lines (born 16 June 1995) is an English professional snooker player who practices at Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds.^[3] He is the son of former professional snooker player Peter Lines.^[1]

Career

Amateur

Lines switched sports from football to snooker at aged 14. His progression continued by entering into the Players Tour Championship events in 2011,^[4] but made little impact in the 2011/2012 season.^[4] 2012/2013 saw major improvement^[4] and a notable 4–3 over Joe Perry in 2012 UKPTC 3.^[1][4] He also entered Q School for the first time in May 2013 in the hope of qualifying on the main but failed to do after securing four wins in the three events.^[4] Despite not qualifying for the main tour, Lines’ performances in Q School were enough to earn him a top up place in the qualifying round of the 2013 Australian Goldfields Open, his first senior ranking event. He won in the opening round, beating fellow Leeds-based player David Grace 5–4, but suffered a 5–4 reverse in the second round last-96 stage to Zhang Anda of China.^[5][6] For the rest of the season, Lines continued to enter PTC and amateur events, with his most notable result being a 4–2 over professional Scott Donaldson in the 2013 Ruhr Open.^[7][8]

Professional

In 2014, Lines won a place on the professional World Snooker Tour for the 2014–15 and 2015–16 seasons after beating Josh Boileau 6–1 in the final of the 2014 EBSA European Under-21 Snooker Championships.^[9][10]

2014/2015

His first match as a professional was a successful one, beating Dave Harold 5–4 in the qualifying stages of the Wuxi Classic,^[11] but he lost 5–1 to amateur Oliver Brown at the venue stage.^[12] He had a run to the last 16 stage of the opening Asian PTC event of the season in the Yixing Open, but failed to qualify for the Australian Goldfields Open and Shanghai Masters.^[13] In qualifying for the International Championship Lines beat world champion and world number one Mark Selby 6–4 from 4–0 down at the mid-session interval.^[14] He continued to impress at the Haining Open by reaching his first professional semi-final after dispatching Ryan Day 4–2 with breaks of 120 and 113.^[15] He then edged out Jimmy Robertson 4–3, but was whitewashed 4–0 in the final by Stuart Bingham.^[16] He came through a wildcard match at the International, but lost 6–3 to Rod Lawler in the first round.^[13] Lines’ Asian final helped him finish fifth on their Order of Merit to make his debut in the Grand Final, where he was eliminated 4–1 by Matthew Selt in the opening round.^[17] His first season as a professional concluded with a 10–7 defeat against Mark Davis in the second round of World Championship qualifying.^[13] He finished his first season as a professional ranked world number 78.^[18]

2015/2016

Lines signed up with Django Fung, who manages players such as Ronnie O'Sullivan and Judd Trump, and Lines hoped it would help him further his career.^[19] A 4–2 win over Ali Carter saw Lines reach the last 16 of the Riga Open, but he lost 4–0 to Liang Wenbo. He qualified for the International Championship by beating Gary Wilson 6–3 and then won a match at a ranking event for the first time in his career by eliminating Noppon Saengkham 6–4, before losing by a reversal of this scoreline to David Gilbert.^[20] He made it through to the second round of the UK Championship with a 6–2 victory over Cao Yupeng, but was then whitewashed 6–0 by world number one Mark Selby.^[21] A second last 16 showing in the European Tour events came at the Gibraltar Open and was ended by Alfie Burden, but Lines finished 35th on the Order of Merit.^[22] He also got into the top 64 at the end of the season for the first time as he was ranked 61st in the world.^[23]

2016/2017

At the 2016 Indian Open, Lines reached the last 16 of a ranking event for the first time by beating Graeme Dott 4–1 and Andrew Higginson 4–2, but lost 4–2 to Shaun Murphy. After defeating Martin O'Donnell at the UK Championship, Lines knocked out world number three Judd Trump 6–2 and said it was the first time he had played well in a televised match.^[24] He reached the last 16 for the second time this season by dispatching Jimmy Robertson 6–0, but could not pick up a frame himself as Marco Fu won 6–0.^[25] After losing 4–0 in the third round of the Scottish Open, Lines lost five of his six matches in the remainder of the season.^[26]

2024/2025

At the 2024 British Open, Lines would reach his first ever ranking Semi-Final bettering his Dad's best ever performance at an ranking tournament, He would lose 6-0 to John Higgins.

Performance and rankings timeline

Tournament	2013/ 14	2014/ 15	2015/ 16	2016/ 17	2017/ 18	2018/ 19	2019/ 20	2020/ 21	2021/ 22	2022/ 23	2023/ 24	2024/ 25
Ranking[27][nb 1]	[nb 2]	[nb 3]	78	61	62	[nb 4]	78	[nb 5]	72	57	59	[nb 4]
Ranking tournaments
Championship League	Non-Ranking Event							RR	2R	RR	RR	RR
Xi'an Grand Prix	Tournament Not Held											LQ
Saudi Arabia Masters	Tournament Not Held											2R
English Open	Not Held			1R	1R	2R	1R	2R	1R	1R	3R	2R
British Open	Tournament Not Held								3R	LQ	2R	SF
Wuhan Open	Tournament Not Held										1R	LQ
Northern Ireland Open	Not Held			1R	2R	1R	1R	1R	2R	LQ	LQ	3R
International Championship	A	1R	2R	1R	2R	LQ	LQ	Not Held			1R	LQ
UK Championship	A	1R	2R	4R	2R	1R	1R	2R	1R	LQ	LQ	LQ
Shoot Out	Non-Ranking			1R	1R	3R	1R	1R	4R	1R	4R	1R
Scottish Open	Not Held			3R	1R	1R	1R	1R	1R	LQ	1R	LQ
German Masters	A	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ
Welsh Open	A	1R	1R	1R	2R	2R	1R	2R	LQ	LQ	1R
World Open	A	Not Held		1R	1R	LQ	LQ	Not Held			LQ	LQ
World Grand Prix	NH	NR	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ
Players Championship[nb 6]	DNQ	1R	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ
Tour Championship	Tournament Not Held					DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ
World Championship	A	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ
Former ranking tournaments
Wuxi Classic	A	1R	Tournament Not Held
Australian Goldfields Open	LQ	LQ	LQ	Tournament Not Held
Shanghai Masters	A	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	Non-Ranking		Not Held			Non-Ranking
Paul Hunter Classic	Minor-Ranking			1R	1R	1R	NR	Tournament Not Held
Indian Open	A	LQ	NH	3R	LQ	3R	Tournament Not Held
China Open	A	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	1R	Tournament Not Held
Riga Masters[nb 7]	NH	Minor-Rank		LQ	2R	2R	1R	Tournament Not Held
China Championship	Not Held			NR	1R	LQ	LQ	Tournament Not Held
WST Pro Series	Tournament Not Held							2R	Tournament Not Held
Turkish Masters	Tournament Not Held								QF	Not Held
Gibraltar Open	Not Held		MR	1R	3R	1R	3R	2R	2R	Not Held
WST Classic	Tournament Not Held									QF	Not Held
European Masters	Not Held			LQ	1R	1R	LQ	1R	LQ	1R	LQ	NH
Former non-ranking tournaments
Six-red World Championship	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	Not Held		LQ	Not Held

Performance Table Legend
LQ	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-finals
SF	lost in the semi-finals	F	lost in the final	W	won the tournament
DNQ	did not qualify for the tournament	A	did not participate in the tournament	WD	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.

1. It shows the ranking at the beginning of the season
2. He was an amateur
3. New players on the Main Tour don't have a ranking
4. Players qualified One Year Ranking List started the season without ranking points
5. Players qualified through Q School started the season without ranking points
6. The event was called the Players Tour Championship Grand Final (2013/2014–2015/2016)
7. The event was called the Riga Open (2014/2015–2015/2016)

Career finals

Minor-ranking finals: 1

Outcome	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score
Runner-up	2014	Haining Open	Stuart Bingham	0–4

Amateur finals: 1 (1 title)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score
Winner	2014	European Under-21 Snooker Championship	Josh Boileau	6–1

References

1. "Snooker: Leeds starlet eyes family affair on Tour". Yorkshire Evening Post. 20 October 2012. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
2. "WORLD RANKINGS After 2016 Betway UK Championship". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 7 December 2016. Retrieved 7 December 2016.
3. "Oliver Lines Q&A". World Snooker. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
4. "Oliver Lines". Pro Snooker Blog. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
5. "Australian Goldfields Open 2013 qualifiers results" (PDF). World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 June 2013. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
6. "Australian Goldfields Open Qualifiers (2013)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
7. "Ruhr Open (ET5) Draw & Results" (PDF). World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. 6 October 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
8. "European Tour Event Five (2013)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
9. "European Snooker Championships U21 – Bucharest / Romania 2014 – Knockout results". European Billiards & Snooker Association. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
10. "2014/15 List of Tour Players". worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. 13 August 2014. Retrieved 11 June 2014.
11. "Wuxi Classic Qualifiers (2014)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
12. "Sports Lottery Cup Wuxi Classic (2014)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
13. "Oliver Lines 2014/2015". Snooker.org. Retrieved 23 October 2014.
14. "Selby Falls Behind Enemy Lines". World Snooker. Retrieved 25 September 2014.
15. "Lines into Semis in Haining". World Snooker. Retrieved 23 October 2014.
16. "Bingham Storms To Haining Title". World Snooker. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
17. "Asian Order of Merit 2014/2015". Snooker.org. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
18. "World Rankings After 2015 World Championship". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 7 May 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
19. "Snooker star Lines refuses to watch dad play in UK Championship". Yorkshire Evening Post. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
20. "Oliver Lines 2015/2016". Snooker.org. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
21. "UK Championship: Mark Selby through with second whitewash". BBC Sport. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
22. "European Order of Merit 2015/2016". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 28 April 2013. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
23. "Historic Seedings After 2016 World Championship". Snooker.org. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
24. "UK Championship 2016: Oliver Lines stuns Judd Trump to join dad Peter in round three". BBC Sport. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
25. "UK Championship: Barbican star Lines left full of optimism and gifts". The Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
26. "Oliver Lines 2016/2017". Snooker.org. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
27. "Ranking History". Snooker.org. Retrieved 6 February 2011.

External links

• Oliver Lines at the World Snooker Tour
• Oliver Lines at snooker.org