| Biography: |
Welshman Anthony turned professional, along
with hundreds of others, for the start of the 1991/92 season. He
got off to a reasonable start progressing beyond the preliminary
qualifying in five of the ranking events and to the Last 32 in
the UK Championship. He finished his first season a very
creditable 94th in the rankings.
During the next three seasons his results were average but he
could not manage to get past the last 32 in any event. He did
make it to the final stages of the world championships in 1994
and 1995 but lost his opener at the Crucible on both occasions.
His ranking had risen to 48th by the end of the 1994/95 season
and in the next he finally got past the last 32 when he reached
the quarter-finals of the European Open. Helped by several other
steady performances, he moved up to 37th but then things started
to go bad. In 1996/97 he lost his opening game in eight of the
ten ranking events and dropped back 24 places. He was however
selected in the Welsh team for the World Cup in Thailand where
they reached the quarter-finals. The following season was not
much better. Losing his opener in five events, he dropped back
further to 85th which he improved by five places in 1998/99
after some slightly better results.
Things then changed dramatically and he only lost his opening
match in one event over the next two seasons. Even though he
only reached the last 16 once during this time he leapt back up
the rankings and by the end of the 2000/01 season had made it
into the top 32 at number 31. He consolidated that place on
2001/02 reaching the last 16 twice; in the British Open and, for
the first time, in the world championship at the Crucible. A
poor season followed in which he only won three matches and
failed to get past the last 32 in any event. This dropped his
ranking to 31st and will put his top 32 place at risk during the
next campaign.
Anthony has realised that he needs to get to the 'business end'
of more tournaments and his immediate target is to get to some
finals and semi-finals to give him a chance of actually winning
an event, something he is more than capable of achieving if he
sets his mind to it. |
