Snooker: Fergal: My will to win

FERGAL O'Brien is fast earning a reputation as the comeback king.

The Irishman's never-say-die attitude was established on a half- sized snooker table bought as a Christmas present by his grandparents when he was eight.

And it manifested itself again in the last 16 of the UK Championships in Bournemouth last week when he came back from 7-2 down against world championship runner-up Matthew Stevens to steal a famous 9-8 victory.

O'Brien (below), now 28 and married with a three month old daughter, Lisa, said: "I've always played to win. It's the key to my game, just how badly I'm playing isn't necessarily a good guide to what is going to happen.

"I struggled against Matthew, but I dug in to get a result. If it's at all possible, I'll hang on in there to the bitter end."

The world No 9 can point to a 10-9 victory over Thai James Wattana in the first round of the 1998 world championship after falling 5-0 and 8-4 behind.

He was also 7-3 down to Ken Doherty in the last 16 of the 1998 UK championship but came through to win 9-7.

O'Brien's luck ran out in Bournemouth when he was beaten 9-2 by World champion Mark Williams, but he feels he is progressing in the right direction.

"After turning professional in 1991 and having a couple of good seasons, things stood still for a bit and I struggled with my game. I was in a bit of a hole, I didn't have a lot of confidence and it would have been easy for me to walk away from it. But I persevered and got going again.

"The last two to three years have been just the opposite. I've improved all the time, moved into the top 16 and won a ranking event as well. But it's harder to jump one place up the rankings these days than it was a hundred a few years ago. At least I'm learning all the time."

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