Michael Georgiou (born 18 January 1988) is a British-Cypriot former professional snooker player from Forest Hill. He is a practice partner of Igor Figueiredo and Hammad Miah, who practises at Whetstone Snooker Club.[2]
Michael Georgiou made the 140th official maximum break in the third frame of the last 128 match against Umut Dikme at the 2018 Paul Hunter Classic. It was Michael's first professional maximum break.
Georgiou qualified for the main tour by winning the 2007 IBSF World Under-21 Snooker Championship in India. However it was a season to forget as he failed to win a single match and lost his tour place as a result.
Georgiou spent the next two seasons competing in the PIOS series then decided to give up snooker and started a career in recruitment. He commented: "I was doing a 9-to-5 job, sitting behind a desk. But I always kept an eye on snooker and when I saw how the sport had changed and the opportunities that are there now, I decided to give it another try".[5] Georgiou returned to serious action in 2013 as he entered the Q School, his best run coming at the second event where he defeated Dessie Sheehan and Darren Bond, before losing to eventual qualifier Ahmed Saif. Georgiou continued to enter European Tour events as an amateur during the 2013/14 season, while also participating in the EBSA Qualifying Tour where he reached final of one of the tournaments to qualify for the play-offs. There Georgiou was beaten to the two-year tour card by Zak Surety; however he was more successful in the 2014 Q School where, after losing early in Event 1, he went all the way in Event 2 by defeating Adam Wicheard, Gareth Green, Sean O'Sullivan, Jordan Brown and in the final round Ashley Carty to confirm his return to the main tour for the 2014–15 and 2015–16 seasons.
Georgiou announced that he would be representing Cyprus at the 2016 Q School. Georgiou was successful in the second event, regaining his tour place defeating Craig Steadman 4–1 in the final round and as a result would qualify for the tour as a Cypriot player.[14] He got to the third round of the Paul Hunter Classic courtesy of beating Fraser Patrick 4–1 and David Gilbert 4–2 and lost 4–1 to Gerard Greene. Georgiou secured 6–2 and 6–4 wins over Matthew Selt and Mike Dunn to set up a third round encounter with Ronnie O'Sullivan at the UK Championship. Georgiou took the opening frame, but would go on to lose 6–1 and described his opponent as not human after the match such was his standard of play.[15] He had a fourth round showing at the Shoot-Out and was eliminated by Andy Hicks.[16]
Georgiou moved out of London to Northern Ireland for a different pace of life and to be around fellow pro's Jordan Brown and Mark Allen, however results didn't follow and after a second round defeat to Jimmy White in qualifying for the delayed 2020 World Snooker Championship saw his ranking drop low enough for him to be off the professional tour.[17]