Name: Dominic Dale

DOB: December 29th, 1971

Nationality: Welsh

Turned Pro: 1992

Highest Ranking: #19 (1999-2000)

Current Ranking: #34

Highest Break: 145 (1999 UK Championship)

Career Highlights: 1997 Grand Prix Champion, 2007 Shanghai Masters Champion, 2002 LG Cup Semi-Finalist, 2006 Northern Ireland Trophy Semi-Finalist, 2000 World Championship Quarter-Finalist

Early career

The first notable success of Dominic’s amateur career was to become the Welsh National Champion in 1991, earning himself a place at the World Amateur Championships in Thailand in the same year. Although he did well, going all the way to the final, he just fell short of glory, losing 11-9 to local hero Noppadon Noppachorn.

Following this he turned professional in 1992/3 and finished his debut season a creditable 164th, his best run being a last 64 appearance at the European Open. He improved to 99th following his second season, highlighted by a first appearance in the last 32 of an event and a couple more last 64 showings.

Things continued like this for the next few years, solid improvement without making a real breakthrough. This began to change in 1996/7 when he qualified for the final stages of four tournaments, including a last 16 spot on his first visit to the Crucible.

Grand Prix winner

The following season was to get off to an unbelievable start however as Dominic not only made his first ranking event final, but won it 9-6 against John Higgins to capture his first major title. This, along with some other solid results helped launch him up into the top 32 for the first time at number 23.

Since then though, Dominic’s career failed to take off for whatever reason. He made a few more semi-final appearances at the LG Cup, Thailand Masters and Northern Ireland Trophy, whilst in 2000 he reached the World Championship quarter-finals where he lost out to Joe Swail.

Shanghai Master

Things were all to change in 2007 though when a newly blonde haired Dominic went on a remarkable run at the inaugural Shanghai Masters tournament. Having defeated Rory McLeod to make the last 32, he then defeated Ken Doherty, Adrian Gunnell, Dave Harold and Mark Selby to reach his first final in ten years. Here he faced fellow Welshman Ryan Day and despite falling 6-2 behind early on, he won the next eight frames to clinch a 10-6 victory and a surprising second ranking crown. Memorably he celebrated this result with an…interesting rendition of ‘My Way’ for the audience in the arena!

Although the rest of his season failed to hit these heights, he at least did just enough to cling on to a spot on the top 32 for 2008/9. Incidentally, after his success in Shanghai he is now the only player to have won multiple ranking event titles, but not made it into the top 16 in the rankings.

2008/9

Unfortunately for Dominic, 2008/9 was something of a struggle as he failed to win five of his opening eight qualifying matches and as a result has lost his place in the top 32. His strongest showing was a run to the quarter-finals in Bahrain, though even this was aided by a second round bye due to the withdrawals of other players.

Dale has attributed some of his poor results to the difficulties and lack of practice opportunities caused by his move to Vienna a couple of years ago. He hopes to improve by coming over for the qualifying tournaments well in advance and getting some quality match practice in with fellow Welshmen such as Matthew Stevens and Ryan Day. Time will tell whether this strategy will be enough to move him back up into the top 32 or even beyond as he moves into the latter stages of his career…

Tournament Victories:

Ranking Event wins (2)

Profile supplied by Matt Huart (http://prosnookerblog.com/)