Adrian Gunnell
Name: Adrian Gunnell
DOB: August 24th, 1972
Nationality: England
Turned Pro: 1994
Highest Ranking: #36 (2008/9)
Current Ranking: #42
Highest Break: 147 (1999 Thailand Masters)
Career Highlights: Four Times Ranking Event Last 16, 9-7 victory over Matthew Stevens in qualifying for the 2007 UK Championship, 5-3 victory over Shaun Murphy at the 2008 Grand Prix
Career Highlights
A professional since 1994, it is only recently that Telford’s Adrian Gunnell has really started to show what he is made of, climbing the rankings for a fifth consecutive season up to number 36.
In his first few years on the tour, Gunnell was most notable for his maximum 147 break at the 1999 Thailand Masters. Indeed four years later when practising with friend Ian Duffy at a club in Telford, he did even better with three maximums in the space of four frames, a terrific achievement even though not in a competitive match.
As far as competitive form goes though, things also began to improve following the 2003/4 season which he ended ranked at 73. Since then he has managed to progress up the rankings in each of the five years since and is now looking to break into the top 32 for the first time.
His standout results have been his four runs to the last 16 of ranking event tournaments, the first coming in at the 2001 Thailand Masters. Also in Asia, his second came at the 2005 China Open where he beat Joe Jogia, Barry Hawkins, John Parrott, Zhang Kai and Chris Small before going down 5-2 to Mark Williams.
At the 2007 Shanghai Masters he completed a trio of last 16 spots in Asia with victories over Judd Trump, Anthony Hamilton, Cao Xinlong and Ali Carter. Again though he was to then come up short, this time against eventual winner Dominic Dale who beat him 5-1.
His most impressive result during 2007/8 though had to be his 9-7 qualifying win over former world UK Champion Matthew Stevens to qualify for the 2007 tournament which was to be held in his home town of Telford. Unfortunately his run came to an end in the last 32 with a heavy defeat to Chinese star Ding Junhui.
2008/9
His start to the 2008/9 season was been mixed, though at the Grand Prix in Glasgow he was to make the last 16 stage of an event for the fourth time as he recorded probably the most impressive result of his career in seeing off world number three Shaun Murphy 5-3 to earn a tie with Steve Davis.
From here though Adrian’s season began to unravel as he lost out against Davis not just in Glasgow, but in qualifying for the UK Championships in December too. From then on lost his first round matches in both the Welsh and China Open, before seeing his season come to an end with a heavy 10-2 defeat to Lee Spick in the World Championship.
His efforts earlier on in the campaign were enough to see him remain in the top 48 at least but he has slipped down to 42nd place now and will start 2009/10 provisionally ranked 51st.
