Franky Chan
Franky Chan is a former professional snooker player from Hong Kong.
Career
Chan started playing snooker when he was 12 and became a professional player in 1990. He played in the Hong Kong Masters and the 1988 Kent Cup, and was a semi-finalist at the 1989 World Amateur Snooker Championship where he was defeated 2-8 by Ken Doherty.Chen defeated amateurs Guy Dennis and Marcus Campbell and then professional Mike Darrington in the 1990 Professional Play-offs to secure a place as a professional for the 1990–91 snooker season. He became the first professional player from Hong Kong.
Chan's first season on tour saw runs to the last 16 at two ranking events, the Asian Open and the Dubai Classic, and to the last-32 stage at the 1991 British Open. In the 1990 Asian Open, he defeated Jason Smith, David Roe, Wayne Jones and Darren Morgan, before losing 1–5 to Tony Chappel; the Dubai Classic saw victories over Joe Grech, Nigel Gilbert, Cliff Wilson and Jimmy White, but then was beaten 2–5 by Rex Williams. In the British Open, Chan was defeated 5–0 by Stephen Hendry; having started the season without a ranking, he finished it 53rd, already within the top 64 who automatically kept their place on tour for the following season.
In the non-ranking 1991 Belgian Challenge, Chan reached the quarter-finals, where he faced White again, and this time lost 0–5; however, only sixteen players featured in the event and Chan had won his last-16 match against Neal Foulds to reach this stage. Later in the 1991–92 season, he recorded the best finish of his career when he faced Nigel Bond in the quarter-finals of the ranking 1992 Strachan Open, although he lost 1–5. Chan finished the season ranked 42nd, also a career-best.
By the end of the 1993–94 snooker season, Chan had slipped to 118th in the rankings. He did not play professionally again after that season and was ranked 310th in 1995.