Teenage amateur Paul Deaville has shown his potential at this week’s BetVictor English Open by reaching the last 16 in his first appearance in a world ranking event.
The 17-year-old has beaten Mark Lloyd, Chang Bingyu and Zhao Xintong to set up a fourth round match with Mark King in Milton Keynes. Here are ten things you may not have known about Deaville…
He was born in Blackpool, lived most of his life in Merseyside and has recently moved to Bilston in the West Midlands.
His father is English and his mother is from Thailand – she moved to the UK 20 years ago.
He missed Q School this year because he was completing his GCSE exams. He is now at college studying a Business and Enterprise course.
His snooker idol is Mark Williams – and Deaville would have played the three-time Crucible king in the first round this week had Williams not withdrawn after testing positive for Covid-19.
He was handed a place in this event as one of two players nominated by the English Partnership for Snooker and Billiards.
Deaville won the English under-14 championship in 2018 and the under-16 title in August this year, beating Oliver Sykes in the final.
His father once ran a guest house in Blackpool which had a pool table in it. Paul first held a cue on that table, and then graduated to snooker at the age of 11.
Amateurs earn prize money at WST events in the same way as pros. Deaville is already guaranteed £7,500 this week and if he beats King to reach the quarter-finals, that figure will jump to £10,000.
He shares his birthday – October 25th – with another player who lives in the West Midlands: Reanne Evans.
He supports Liverpool FC and often goes to games at Anfield.
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