User:Montgomery15/sandbox/Mark Fenton

Mark Fenton (born 26 July 1972) is a Welsh former professional snooker player. He competed between 1994 and 2002, reaching his highest ranking, 91st, for the 1999/2000 and 2000/2001 seasons.

1994 to 1997
Born in 1972, Fenton turned professional in 1994. He had reached the last 16 of the World Amateur Championship the previous year in Pakistan, and continued this form into his career on the main tour; in the 1994 Benson & Hedges Championship, he recorded a 5–2 win over Neal Foulds en route to the last 32, where Mark Davis eliminated him by the same scoreline. At the 1994 UK Championship, Fenton made his breakthrough, coming through the five qualifying rounds before beating Joe Grech 5–2, Silvino Francisco by the same scoreline, and Steve James 9–1, to set up a meeting in the last 32 with defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan. There, he went into the first mid-session interval holding O'Sullivan to 2–2, but was eventually outclassed, losing 4–9. He failed to progress beyond the third qualifying round in any of the later events that season, but his performance in York ensured he began the next with a ranking of 195th.

Fenton next enjoyed success, however, in 1997, at the International Open, where he defeated Matthew Street, Surinder Gill, Karl Burrows and Mark King to reach the last 64; he was again drawn to face O'Sullivan, and this time - in a match in which neither player recorded a break over 50 - he took the first frame but lost 1–5. Following a 7–10 loss to Oliver King in qualifying for the 1997 World Championship, Fenton was relegated from the main tour.

1998 to 2002
During the 1997/1998 season, Fenton competed on the UK Tour in an attempt to regain his place on the main tour, and met with good results, winning Event Two with a 6–4 victory in the final over Antony Bolsover. This enabled him to enter ranking tournaments again in the next season, which he began with a ranking of 112th.

At the 1999 Thailand Masters and the 1999 China International, Fenton recorded back-to-back last-64 finishes, losing 1–5 to Joe Swail in the former and 3–5 to Anthony Davies in the latter. Seventeen-year-old Stephen Maguire beat him 10–9 in qualifying for the 1999 World Championship, but Fenton had compiled results good enough to lift him into the top 100 in the rankings for the first time; he started the 1999/2000 season at 91st.

Fenton began that season strongly, reaching the last 64 at the 1999 British Open, the Grand Prix and the UK Championship, losing to Terry Murphy 3–5, James Wattana by the same scoreline and Swail 4–9; in the 2000 Welsh Open, he reached the last 32 for the second time in his career, beating Michael Judge and Paul Davies, both 5–4, and receiving a walkover from Quinten Hann. However, Ian McCulloch proved too strong for him, and he lost 2–5.

Fenton retained his ranking for the 2000/2001 season, but his best performance therein was a last-64 finish at the 2000 UK Championship, where he lost 4–6 to Bradley Jones. He dropped to 126th for the 2001/2002 season, and although he reached the quarter-finals at Event 4 of the Challenge Tour, he had been relegated from the main tour by the time of qualifying for the 2002 World Championship. His opponent there, Stuart Roper, received a walkover, and following poor results in the next season's Challenge Tour, Fenton did not play competitive snooker again.