Anthony McGill
Anthony McGill is a Scottish professional snooker player. He is a practice partner of retired snooker player Alan McManus.
McGill turned professional in 2010, after finishing fourth in the 2009/2010 PIOS rankings. He won the 2016 Indian Open, after having previously never been beyond the quarter-final stage of a ranking event.
Career
Amateur years
He was runner-up to Stuart Carrington in the 2006 Junior Pot Black.He was runner-up in the 2008 European Under-19's Championship behind Stephen Craigie.
In the 2009/2010 season, he won the fifth event of the International Open Series and finished fourth in the rankings. Thus, McGill received a place on the professional main tour for 2010/2011. He reached his first professional final, losing 1β6 to John Higgins in the 2011 Scottish Professional Championship.
2011/2012
McGill did not manage to qualify for the main stage of any ranking event tournaments during the season, reaching the final qualifying on one occasion in an attempt to reach the German Masters. He reached the semi-finals of Event 3 in the minor-ranking Players Tour Championship series, which included wins over experienced campaigners Matthew Stevens and Stephen Lee, before losing 0β4 to Ben Woollaston. McGill's season concluded with an 8β10 defeat to Anthony Hamilton in the penultimate qualifying round for the World Championship, finishing the season ranked world number 50.2012/2013
McGill could only qualify for the China Open during the 2012/2013 season. He beat David Grace, Yu Delu and Martin Gould to reach the venue in Beijing, where he defeated Heydari Nezhad Ehsan 5β3 in the wild-card round. He faced Mark Allen in the last 32 and lost 1β5. McGill had a very good season in the Players Tour Championship events by reaching his first ever minor-ranking final in the European Tour Event 5, played in his homeland of Scotland. He saw off the likes of Mark Davis and Robert Milkins to make it through to the quarter-finals where he was 0β3 and 51 points down against Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon to triumph 4β3. He was also 1β3 down in the semis to Andrew Higginson, but recovered to win on a respotted black. McGill played Ding Junhui in the final and came up short of winning the title as he lost 2β4. The run helped him to 16th on the PTC Order of Merit to qualify for the Finals, where he beat Milkins 4β2 before once again losing to Ding, this time by a 3β4 scoreline. In the third round of World Championship Qualifying McGill fought back from 3β8 down against Rod Lawler to force a decider which Lawler won. McGill ended the season at number 48 in the rankings, at that point his highest position.2013/2014
McGill lost in qualifying for the first three events of the season, but at the Indian Open he reached the quarter-finals of a ranking tournament for the first time. He faced Robbie Williams and was whitewashed 4β0. At the minor-ranking Zhengzhou Open, he let a 2β0 lead slip in the semi-finals against Liang Wenbo to lose 4β3. McGill was beaten in the last 32 of ranking events on three further occasions during the season.2014/2015
McGill began the season with a 5β3 loss to John Higgins in the first round of the Wuxi Classic. He reached the semi-finals of the Riga Open after beating Judd Trump 4β3, but lost in another final frame decider against Mark Allen. McGill eliminated both Michael Georgiou and Igor Figueiredo by 6β4 scorelines at the UK Championship and then came back from 4β1 down against Nigel Bond to triumph 6β5. He reached his first UK quarter-final by holding on to beat John Higgins 6β5 after being 4β1 up, but attributed the win to Higgins' bad form rather than his own good play. McGill then lost 6β4 to Ronnie O'Sullivan after being 2β0 ahead and admitted he had blown his opportunity to knock out the four-time UK champion after failing to capitalise on the many chances that came his way during the game. However, he did break into the top 32 in the rankings for the first time after the event. McGill finished 21st on the European Order of Merit to play in the Grand Final and overcame Peter Ebdon 4β1 in the first round, before losing 4β3 to Joe Perry.McGill finished the year by qualifying for the televised stages of the World Championship for the first time, after coming through three matches, ending with a 10β9 victory over Mark King which he closed with a 127 break. Compatriot Stephen Maguire levelled their first round match at 9β9 after having been 9β5 behind, but McGill once again made a century break in the deciding frame, this time a 122. McGill then knocked out defending champion Mark Selby 13β9 in the second round, with Selby stating that he believed McGill could win the title if he could maintain his form. In the third ranking event quarter-final of his career, McGill lost 13β8 to Shaun Murphy. The crowd warmed to McGill during his run in the tournament due to him smiling frequently between shots and displaying a relaxed attitude. He was the world number 24 afterwards, resulting in a climb of 21 places in 12 months.
2015/2016
The first ranking event McGill qualified for this season was the International Championship and he thrashed Sean O'Sullivan 6β0, before losing 6β1 to Mark Selby. He exited in the second round of the UK Championship 6β4 to Luca Brecel and reached the last 32 stage of a ranking event for just the second time this season at the Welsh Open with wins over Liam Highfield and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, but lost 4β2 to Neil Robertson. McGill overcame Hatem Yassen 10β1, Craig Steadman 10β9 and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 10β7 to qualify for the World Championship for the second year in a row. In a rematch of last year's quarter-final, McGill met Shaun Murphy and came back from 6β4 to win 10β8.> However, after he lost 13β9 to Marco Fu in the second round, McGill described his play as rubbish.2016/2017
McGill advanced to the quarter-finals of the 2016 Riga Masters, but was thrashed 5β0 by Michael Holt. Another quarter-final followed at the Indian Open by whitewashing Stuart Bingham 4β0 and he followed that up by eliminating Stephen Maguire 4β1 and Shaun Murphy 4β2, after trailing 2β0. McGill played Kyren Wilson in the final, the first to feature two players under 25 in five years, and they went into the interval at 2β2. After the break, McGill took three successive frames to seal his first ranking event title with a 5β2 victory. Three comfortable wins saw him advance to the quarter-finals of the World Open, where he lost 5β2 to Thepchaiya Un-Nooh. McGill's fourth quarter-final of the season arrived at the European Masters and he was ousted 4β2 by Neil Robertson.This was the first season where the Shoot-Out, the tournament where every match is settled by a 10-minute frame played under a shot clock, had its status upgraded to a ranking event. McGill progressed through to the final and beat Xiao Guodong by 67β19 points to claim his second ranking event title. Afterwards McGill stated that there was "no way on God's earth" that the tournament should be a ranking event due to the conditions it's played under. He was a seeded player in the World Championship for the first time, but from 2β2 with Stephen Maguire in the first round he conceded 447 points without reply and McGill went on to be defeated 10β2. He just fell short of ending a season inside the top 16 for the first time as he was 17th.
2017/2018
McGill reached the final of the Indian Open again but was unable to defend his title, losing 5β1 to John Higgins. McGill was beaten in the first round of the 2018 Dafabet Masters, losing 6β4 to John Higgins. This marked his first appearance at the tournament. McGill lost to Mark Davis in the first round of the Snooker Shootout 2018. Davis scored a century break to knock McGill, defending champion out of the tournament.2018/2019
McGill's form slipped this season and saw his world ranking dropped from 14th to 23rd by the end of the season. He was unable to advance past the third round in all the tournaments.2020/Present
McGill beat Jack Lisowski 109 in the first round of the 2020 World Championship. McGill then won two more matches to reach the semi-final where he played Kyren Wilson. With the match level at 16 frames apiece, McGill conceded 35 points in fouls in the deciding frame to lose the match 1617.At the 2021 World Championship, McGill beat O'Sullivan 1312 in the last 16 before losing 1213 in the quarter-final to Bingham.
McGill reached the last 16 of the 2022 World Championship where he was defeated 1113 by Trump.
After beating Trump 106 in the first round of the 2023 World Championship, McGill went on to reach the quarter-final where he was beaten 1213 by Si Jiahui.
McGill failed to qualify for the 2024 World Championship after losing in qualifying to He Guoqiang. It was the first time that he had failed to qualify for the Crucible in ten years.
McGill reached the final of the 2025 British Open where he was defeated 710 by Shaun Murphy.