Mark Joyce

Joyce had a very uneventful first season on Main Tour, failing to qualify for any of the major events. He ended the season losing in the penultimate qualifying round of the World Championship to Fergal O'Brien 10–4. He also recorded his highest break of 130 in professional play during the qualifiers. This would remain his highest break until the qualifying stages of the 2010 World Championship. He ended the season ranked 73rd.

Joyce started the season with 2 wins in qualifying for the Shanghai Masters before narrowly losing 5–4 to veteran John Parrott in the penultimate qualifying round. The Grand Prix would be the first tournament that Joyce would qualify for after finishing 2nd in his qualifying group. However, he would go on to lose all 5 matches in the group stage of the tournament. After failing to qualify for the Northern Ireland Trophy, Joyce won 3 matches to reach the final qualifying round of the UK Championship before being ousted 9–2 by Ian McCulloch. The remainder of the season was fairly uneventful as he failed to qualify for the Malta Cup, Welsh Open and the China Open. He finished the season off by losing in the third qualifying round of the World Championship. His exploits in the season resulted in his ranking going up 14 places to number 59. This will mean he would have 1 less qualifying match to play in the following season.

The season started with a 5–0 victory against Patrick Wallace and then a 5–0 defeat to Judd Trump in the first ranking event of the season, the Northern Ireland Trophy. He followed this up with a run to the final qualifying round of the Shanghai Masters in the next event. Another win and a defeat in the Grand Prix after being reverted to a knockout competition and the same result in the Bahrain Championship. Joyce only recorded 1 win from the next three ranking tournaments, the UK Championship, the Welsh Open and the China Open. His best performance of the season was in the qualifying tournament for the Masters, where he reached final, only to lose 1–6 to Judd Trump. The season ended poorly for Joyce with a 10–6 defeat to Patrick Wallace in his first match of the World Championship qualifiers. Despite this, he ended the season up 2 places to number 57 in the rankings.

Joyce's fourth season on the tour got off to a bad start with a 5–2 defeat to Joe Jogia in the qualifying for the Shanghai Masters. He followed this up with victories over Andrew Norman, Michael Judge and Barry Hawkins to qualify for the Grand Prix. He was drawn against the defending champion John Higgins and was defeated 5–1. The remainder of the season up to the World Championship was uneventful with only 2 wins in 3 ranking tournaments. In qualifying for the World Championship, he recorded a 139 break (his highest so far in professional snooker) against Jimmy Robertson in the 3rd qualifying round. He won this match 10–9 and then defeated Michael Judge 10–8 to set up a meeting with Jamie Cope for a place at The Crucible. Cope was to prove too strong for Joyce as he ran away a 10–5 winner.

Despite starting from the first round of qualification, Joyce managed to qualify for the televised stages of the UK Championship for the first time in his career, beating six-time World Champion Steve Davis 9–2 in the final qualifying round. He reached the quarter-finals of a ranking tournament for the first time in his career by defeating Ali Carter 9–6 in the last 32 and Judd Trump 9–7 in the last 16. In quarter-finals, he lost 7–9 to Mark Williams. He ended the season with the highest ranking of his career so far at world number 42, which meant he had climbed 16 places during the year.[2]

Joyce began the season by winning the Pink Ribbon Pro-Am charity tournament, where he whitewashed Michael Holt 4–0 in the final.[3] Due to his new ranking he would need to win two qualifying matches to reach the main stage of the ranking events on the snooker calendar. However, he started the season poorly and saw his ranking slip to number 51 in January, meaning he would now need to win three matches.[4] He achieved this at the Welsh Open as he saw off Daniel Wells, Joe Jogia and held his nerve against Andrew Higginson in a final frame decider to book his place in the main draw, where he played Shaun Murphy.[5] A huge shock appeared to be in the offing as Joyce raced into a 2–0 lead, but Murphy found his form and four frames in a row to triumph.[6] Joyce failed to win another qualifying match in the remaining three tournaments, concluding with a 4–10 loss to David Morris in the World Championship.[5] He finished the season ranked world number 59, dropping 17 places from his starting point, but still inside the top 64 who retain their places for the 2012–13 season.[7]

Joyce failed to qualify for any of the first four ranking events of the season, but then defeated Andy Hicks and Jamie Cope to reach the UK Championship.[8] At the event in York, the world number 50 Joyce pulled off a major shock by coming back from 2–5 down to knock out the world number one Judd Trump 6–5.[9] In the second round he was beaten 2–6 by Ali Carter.[10] After this, he won three matches to qualify for both the World Open and the China Open. Trump exacted his revenge in the first round of the World Open by whitewashing him 0–5,[11] and he withdrew from the China Open as his partner was due to give birth.[12] Joyce had a very consistent season in the minor-ranking Players Tour Championship events, with his best results coming in Event 4 and European Tour Event 5, where he lost in the quarter-finals to Trump and Ken Doherty respectively.[8] He finished 26th on the PTC Order of Merit, claiming the final spot to qualify for the Finals, where Marco Fu beat him 4–2.[13] Joyce's season ended when he was beaten 7–10 by Michael Holt in the final round of World Championship Qualifying.[14] He climbed 17 places in the rankings during the year to end it placed at world number 42.[15]

The 2013–14 season proved to be a successful one as he played at the venue stage of six ranking events, three more than his previous best.[16] His deepest run out of these came at the World Open which he qualified for by beating Fraser Patrick 5–2.[16] Once at the venue in Haikou, China, Joyce defeated David Morris 5–2 and came back from 4–2 down against last year's World Championship runner-up Barry Hawkins to hit breaks of 65, 68 and 72 to edge him out 5–4.[17] He also fought back in the last 16 as he lost the opening two frames against Kurt Maflin to earn a 5–3 victory.[17] In Joyce's second career ranking event quarter-final he played Marco Fu and was defeated 5–3.[18]

Joyce played in seven ranking events this season, the most in a single year in his career to date. He was knocked out in the first round of the 2014 Wuxi Classic 5–1 by Mark Williams and at the Australian Goldfields Open he beat Ryan Day 5–3, before losing 5–2 to Stuart Bingham in the second round. This last 16 exit proved to be Joyce's deepest run in an event this season.[19] He also reached the last 32 of the Indian Open, losing 4–1 to Tian Pengfei.[19]

Joyce opened the season with three wins to qualify for the Australian Goldfields Open and beat Mark Allen 5–2, before losing 5–4 to Matthew Selt.[20] A first round defeat to Ryan Day in the International Championship was followed by defeating Barry Pinches and Sydney Wilson at the UK Championship. Joyce built a 5–0 lead over Dechawat Poomjaeng, but lost six frames in a row to be eliminated in the third round.[21] He bounced back to win two matches and qualify for the German Masters and recorded his second 5–2 first round triumph of the season over Allen. Joyce reached his third career quarter-final after overcoming Mark King 5–2 and led Luca Brecel 4–2, but would lose 5–4. He lost in the second round of the Welsh Open and China Open 4–1 to Alan McManus and 5–1 to John Higgins respectively.[22]

At the International Championship, Joyce overcame Martin Gould 6–3, before losing 6–4 to Zhou Yuelong. He also lost in the second round of the UK Championship 6–2 against David Gilbert.[23] The highlight of Joyce's season came at the China Open where, after narrowly seeing off Fraser Patrick 5–4, he was never behind against Ronnie O'Sullivan in another 5–4 win.[24] It was the only time Joyce played in the last 16 of a ranking event this season and he was defeated 5–3 by Ding Junhui.[23]