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Neil Robertson: The defending champion of the Tour Championship

Neil Robertson overcame a valiant comeback from Mark Allen to reach the Tour Championship semifinals. Robertson had led 7-1 after the opening session, but Allen rallied to make it 8-6 with a battling display on Tuesday evening. However, the fightback stopped there, with Robertson notching his fourth and fifth centuries of the match to win the quarter-final.

After John Higgins secured a thrilling 10-9 comeback win over Zhao Xintong on Monday night, the prospect of another tight encounter seemed to diminish by the frame in the first session, with Robertson looking in fine form. Robertson, who beat Ronnie O’Sullivan in last year’s final, won the opening frame 82-32 and put together sizeable breaks in the successive six frames, including three centuries.

Robertson began his snooker career at 14 when he became the youngest player to make a century break in an Australian ranking event. He started his professional career in the 1998/1999 season. Then, when he was 17 years old, he reached the third qualifying round of the 1999 World Championship. In July 2003, Robertson won the World Under-21 Snooker Championship in New Zealand. This earned him a vital wildcard spot on the subsequent WPBSA Main Tour. In 2003, he won the qualifying tournament for a wildcard place at the 2004 Masters, where he subsequently lost 2–6 to Jimmy White in the first round.

In the 2004–05 season, he moved up to the top 32 in the rankings, reaching the final stages of six of the eight tournaments, despite having to play at least two qualifying matches. He qualified for the final stages of the 2005 World Championship, losing 7–10 to Stephen Hendry in the first round.

He made his breakthrough in the 2006–07 season. After finishing top of his group at the 2006 Grand Prix’s round-robin stage (he lost only one match, his opener against Nigel Bond by 2–3), Robertson beat Ronnie O’Sullivan 5–1 in the quarter-finals. He went on to the semis, being only the fourth Australian ever to do so in a ranking event. He beat Alan McManus 6–2 to reach his first major final, where he faced a fellow first-time finalist, the unseeded Jamie Cope, whom he beat comfortably by 9–5 to win his first-ever professional ranking tournament. The win earned Robertson 60,000 pounds, his highest money earned in one game.

Robertson was the winner of the 2017 Hong Kong Masters, besting Ronnie O’Sullivan 6–3. Later in the season, he reached the quarter-finals of the English Open, where he lost 5–3 to Anthony McGill. In December, he won the Scottish Open, coming from 4–8 down to win 9–8 in the final against Cao Yupeng.

In 2018 Robertson was a quarter-finalist yet again at the 2018 Players Championship but suffered a 1–6 defeat by Judd Trump. He exited the 2018 China Open at the semifinals, losing 6–10 to Barry Hawkins.