Mark King
Name: Mark King
DOB: March 28th 1974
Nationality: English
Turned Pro: 1991
Highest Ranking: #11 (2002/3)
Current Ranking: #16
Highest Break: 146 (2006 UK Championship)
Career Highlights: 1997 Welsh Open Finalist, 2004 Irish Masters Finalist, 2004 UK Championship Semi-Finalist, 2001 British Open Semi-Finalist
In short
A likeable character, Mark King has been a good, solid pro for a number of years now who is always capable of causing an upset as he showed at the World Championship in 2008 by beating Mark Selby in round one. Although he has rarely threatened to truly challenge the elite group at the top of the game on a consistent basis, his results have always been enough to keep him in and around the top 16 where he remains today.
A very good tactician, Mark has always been one of the strongest players around when it comes to the scrappy, longer frames. His big weakness however is his ability to keep position when putting a break together, something that limits his ability to kill off frames in one visit. At the very top of the game the best players do not let this go unpunished and it is a problem that has sometimes cost King dear during his career.
Early career
Turning professional at the start of the 1991/2 season following a solid amateur career, it was to take Mark a number of years to really make a big impact on the main tour. His ranking though did improve steadily each season as he moved into the top 48 for the first time by the end of 1995/6.
Breakthrough
It was the be the following season where he was to really make people sit up and take notice as he reached his first ranking event final at the 1997 Welsh Open, taking out local hero Mark Williams. Despite a heavy defeat to Stephen Hendry in the final, this result was to do wonders for King’s confidence, as well as his ranking which was now up to a career high of 20th.
Inspired by this run, in the following season he was to again perform strongly in the Welsh Open by reaching the semi-final, as well as making a quarter final appearance at the UK Championship. These combined with his other consistent results were enough to elevate him into the elite top 16 bracket for the first time where he was to remain for the next two seasons.At the end of the 2002/03 season however, King was to reach rock bottom and following a poor run of results culminating in defeat at the World Championship to Drew Henry, he said that he wanted to quit the game. Thankfully though, King soon changed his mind and decided to stick at it, returning to the qualifiers where he would have to play following his exit from the top 16.
Recent years
Over the past few years King’s results have been consistent if not spectacular which has left his ranking always being around the magical top 16 mark. At the moment following a successful finish to the season where he beat the in-form Mark Selby in the first round of the 2008 World Championship, King is back inside the 16 at 15th position.
At this stage of his career it is perhaps unlikely that he will improve significantly in the future and push on to the next level. As players like Joe Perry and Ali Carter have shown recently though, given the right circumstances it is more than possible for players like Mark to string a few results together and make an impact these days. Having reached the last 16 stage at the World Championship on six occasions, it would be nice to see him go a step further into the quarter-finals for the first time in the future.He had another chance in 2009 but as in 2006, saw his Crucible campaign ended by Stephen Maguire in what on this occasion proved to be a low quality match. Indeed the most notable statistic to come from it was that their second frame of the match somehow went on for exactly 75 minutes, a new record at the Crucible. In reaching the last 16 stage at least, Mark had done enough to retain his place inside the top 16 for another season.
