Robert Milkins

Robert Milkins

Robert Milkins at the 2012 Paul Hunter Classic
Born	(1976-03-06) 6 March 1976
Sport country	England
Nickname	The Milkman
Professional	1995–
Highest ranking	12 (February–March 2014)
Current ranking	21 (as of 2 May 2016)
Career winnings	£821,665
Highest break	147 (2006 World Championship Qualifiers, 2012 World Championship Qualifiers)
Century breaks	121
Best ranking finish	Semi-finals (x5)
Tournament wins
Non-ranking	1

Robert Milkins (born 6 March 1976) is an English professional snooker player from Gloucester.

Career

Milkins turned professional in 1995, but dropped off the Main Tour when it was reduced in size after the 1996/1997 season, but returned a year later via the UK Tour. After four seasons of solid progress with occasional last-16 runs, he reached the last 16 of the World Snooker Championship in 2002, and the first round in each of the next three years.

He made history in qualifying for the 2006 World Snooker Championship by making a 147 break in his match against Mark Selby. He became only the sixth player to achieve a maximum in the tournament, and the first to do so in qualifying (as a result, he earned £5,000; in the main tournament it would have been worth £147,000). He ultimately lost to Selby 4–10, becoming only the second player to lose a World Championship match despite a 147, the other being Ronnie O'Sullivan against Marco Fu in 2003. Milkins also made a maximum break against Xiao Guodong in the fourth qualifying round of the 2012 tournament, and this time he won the match 10–4. He has also been on the wrong end of a 147 in the tournament – Mark Williams completed a 10–1 victory in the first round of the 2005 tournament with a final-frame maximum.

In 2005 he reached the Irish Masters semi-final, but lost 8–9 against Matthew Stevens.

He lost in the final qualifying round of the World Championships for the second year in a row in 2007 – 10–4 against Mark Allen. In 2008 he did not get this far, losing 10–4 to Barry Pinches.

At the 2006 Grand Prix he and Ronnie O'Sullivan were the only players to win all 5 group matches, however Milkins lost 5–0 to eventual finalist Jamie Cope in the last 16. The 2007/2008 season was a poor one for Milkins, and he has slipped down the rankings to number 51.

Milkins had a strong run at the 2008 Bahrain Championship. After being elevated into the top 48 seeds due to a clash with previously-arranged Premier League Snooker matches, he won two qualifiers before reaching the quarter-finals at the venue, defeating Michael Holt 5–4 in the last 16 having trailed 0–3.

In 2009, Milkins joined player management company on Q Promotions.

Milkins reached the second ranking event semi-final of his career in the 2012 World Open. He qualified for the tournament with 5–1 and 5–0 wins over Sam Craigie and Ryan Day respectively. He was required to play in a wildcard round once at the event in Haikou, China, where he beat amateur Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon 5–3 to set up a first round encounter against Stephen Maguire which Milkins won by another 5–3 scoreline. He defeated Jin Long 5–2, before dispatching reigning world champion John Higgins 5–3 in the quarter-finals. However, Milkins lost his last 4 encounter with Stephen Lee 2–6 and admitted after the match his performance levels had dropped from his previous displays in the tournament. Milkins also reached the second round of the Shanghai Masters and the first round of the UK Championship during the 2011/2012 season and made a 147 break in the qualifying stage of the World Championship. He finished 2011/12 ranked world number 36.

Milkins began the 2012/2013 season by qualifying for the Wuxi Classic by beating Liu Chuang and Ryan Day. Once at the venue in China he came through the wildcard round and then defeated Andrew Higginson 5–3, world number two Judd Trump 5–3 (after being 1–3 down) to reach the quarter-finals where he was on the wrong side of a 5–3 scoreline against Ricky Walden. After this Milkins lost in the qualifying draw of the Australian Goldfields Open and in the first round of four consecutive ranking events. He bucked the trend at the Welsh Open by scoring 4–1 and 4–2 wins over Mark Williams and Sam Baird, but lost 1–5 to Ding Junhui in the quarter-finals. Milkins followed this up by reaching the second round of both the World Open and the China Open, losing to Mark Allen and Stuart Bingham respectively.

Milkins finished 41st on the Players Tour Championship Order of Merit, outside of the top 26 who secured berths into the Finals. However, he took part in all three of the new Asian PTC's and performed well enough to finish 5th on the Order of Merit, which was high enough to qualify for the Finals. There, Milkins lost 2–4 to Anthony McGill in the first round. Milkins qualified for the World Championship for the first time in eight years by defeating six-time runner-up Jimmy White 10–5 in the final qualifying round. Milkins was drawn against world number two and 2010 champion Neil Robertson in the first round, and defeated him 10–8 having trailed 2–5 and described the win as the best of his career afterwards. He found himself 3–9 down to Ricky Walden in the second round, but stormed back into the match to only trail 10–11 before falling short of completing a remarkable comeback as Walden secured the two frames he required to seal a 13–11 win. His successful season saw him rise 18 places in the rankings to world number 18, the highest he has ended a season to date.

2013/2014 season

He continued his form into the 2013 Wuxi Classic, the first ranking event of the 2013/2014 season. Milkins beat John Astley 5–0, Jimmy White 5–3, Scott Donaldson 5–1 and Anthony Hamilton 5–3. In Milkins' third ranking event semi-final of his career he faced new world number one Neil Robertson and lost all four frames in the first mini session, going on to be beaten 2–6. His consistent play carried into the next ranking event, the Australian Goldfields Open by seeing off Ben Woollaston 5–3, Rory McLeod 5–2 and Tom Ford 5–3 to reach another semi-final. Milkins was 1–4 down against Marco Fu, but pulled it back to 4–4 before losing the next two frames to fall short of making his first ranking final. Milkins advanced to the fourth round of the 2013 UK Championship, but was thrashed 6–0 by Ronnie O'Sullivan. Nevertheless, he was ranked inside the top 16 after the event to qualify for the Masters for the first time in his career. He faced O'Sullivan in a one sided match once again with Milkins losing 6–1.

Milkins' season finished in disappointment as he lost in qualifying for the German Masters and China Open, the first round of the Welsh Open and second round of the World Open. His match against Michael Wasley in the final round of World Championship qualifying went to a re-spotted black in the deciding frame which Wasley potted to beat Milkins 10–9. He dropped out of the top 16 by the end of the season to finish it as the world number 20.

2014/2015 season

Milkins began the season well once again by beating Liang Wenbo 5–3 and John Higgins 5–2 to play Neil Robertson in the quarter-finals of the Australian Goldfields Open and was defeated 5–2. He eliminated Barry Pinches 6–2, Shaun Murphy 6–1 and Xiao Guodong 6–4 to play in the quarter-finals of the International Championship. A high quality match with Marco Fu followed which Milkins edged 6–5. He said ahead of his match with Ricky Walden that he had to forget it was a semi-final and focus on his game in an attempt to reach his first ranking event final. However, it would be a fifth exit at the last four stage as Milkins was thrashed 9–2. In November, he reached the final of the minor-ranking Ruhr Open, but lost 4–0 against Murphy.

Milkins did not drop a frame in seeing off Michael Leslie and Marcus Campbell at the UK Championship, but was then whitewashed 6–0 by Graeme Dott in the last 32. In the first round of the Masters he was beaten 6–4 by Robertson having been 4–3 ahead. Milkins won through to the quarter-finals of the Indian Open and lost 4–1 to Mark Williams. After he overcame Michael White 5–1 at the China Open, Milkins knew that he had to reach the final to enter the top 16 in the world rankings and avoid playing three qualifying matches for the World Championship. In his fourth ranking event quarter-final of the season, Milkins led Mark Selby on four occasions but each time he levelled and Selby won the deciding frame 71–0. Milkins did win three matches to qualify for the World Championship and lost 10–5 to John Higgins in the opening round. Milkins finished the season inside the top 16 for the first time in his career as he was 16th.

Personal life

Milkins has spoken openly about problems with debt, lack of motivation and over-dependence on alcohol consumption. He is now a father of two and was coached by 1979 World Champion Terry Griffiths up until the end of the 2014/2015 season.

Performance and rankings timeline

Tournament	1995/ 96	1996/ 97	1997/ 98	1998/ 99	1999/ 00	2000/ 01	2001/ 02	2002/ 03	2003/ 04	2004/ 05	2005/ 06	2006/ 07	2007/ 08	2008/ 09	2009/ 10	2010/ 11	2011/ 12	2012/ 13	2013/ 14	2014/ 15	2015/ 16
Ranking	UR	231	91	99	100	75	54	33	21	28	26	32	47	51	55	36	33	36	18	20	16
Ranking tournaments
Australian Goldfields Open	NR	Not held															LQ	LQ	SF	QF	2R
Shanghai Masters	Not held												LQ	LQ	LQ	WR	2R	1R	2R	1R	1R
International Championship	Not held																	1R	1R	SF	LQ
UK Championship	LQ	2R	A	LQ	3R	2R	1R	QF	1R	2R	1R	1R	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	1R	1R	4R	3R	2R
German Masters	LQ	LQ	A	NR	Not held											1R	LQ	1R	LQ	LQ	LQ
Welsh Open	LQ	LQ	A	1R	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	QF	1R	3R	1R	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	QF	1R	1R
World Grand Prix	LQ	LQ	A	1R	1R	3R	LQ	LQ	1R	2R	1R	2R	LQ	LQ	QF	LQ	SF	2R	2R	NR
Players Championship Grand Final	Not held															DNQ	DNQ	1R	DNQ	1R
China Open	Not held		NR	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	Not held		1R	LQ	LQ	LQ	1R	1R	2R	LQ	2R	LQ	QF
World Championship	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	2R	1R	1R	1R	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	2R	LQ	1R
Non-ranking tournaments
The Masters	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	A	A	A	A	LQ	LQ	A	A	A	1R	1R	A
Championship League	Not held												A	A	A	A	A	RR	RR	RR	RR
Variant format tournaments
Six-red World Championship	Not Held													A	A	A	NH	A	2R	1R	2R
Shoot-Out	Not Held															F	3R	2R	1R	1R
Former ranking tournaments
Dubai Classic	LQ	LQ	Not held
Malta Grand Prix	Non-ranking				2R	NR	Not held
Thailand Masters	LQ	LQ	A	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	NR	Not held			NR	Not held
Scottish Open	LQ	LQ	A	LQ	2R	LQ	1R	2R	1R	Not held								MR	Not held
British Open	LQ	1R	A	LQ	2R	3R	LQ	1R	1R	2R	Not held
Irish Masters	Non-ranking event							1R	LQ	SF	NH	NR	Not held
Malta Cup	LQ	1R	NH	LQ	Not held		1R	1R	LQ	1R	1R	1R	NR	Not held
Northern Ireland Trophy	Not held										NR	2R	LQ	LQ	Not held
Bahrain Championship	Not held													QF	Not held
Wuxi Classic	Not held													Non-ranking				QF	SF	2R	NH
Indian Open	Not Held																		LQ	QF	NH
Former non-ranking tournaments
World Grand Prix	Not Held																			2R	R

Performance Table Legend
LQ	lost in the qualifying draw	#R	lost in the early rounds of the tournament (WR = Wildcard round, RR = Round robin)	QF	lost in the quarter-finals
SF	lost in the semi-finals	F	lost in the final	W	won the tournament
DNQ	did not qualify for the tournament	A	did not participate in the tournament	WD	withdrew from the tournament

NH / Not Held				means an event was not held.
NR / Non-Ranking Event				means an event is/was no longer a ranking event.
R / Ranking Event				means an event is/was a ranking event.
MR / Minor-Ranking Event				means an event is/was a minor-ranking event.

Career finals

Minor-ranking event finals: 1 (1 runner-up)

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score
Runner-up	1.	2014	Ruhr Open	Shaun Murphy	0–4

Non-ranking event finals: 1 (1 title)

Legend Masters (0–0) Premier League (0–0) Other (1–0) Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score Winner 1. 2009 Pro Challenge Series – Event 3 Joe Jogia 5–3

Variant event finals: 1 (1 runner-up)

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score
Runner-up	1.	2011	Snooker Shoot-Out	Nigel Bond	24–58 (points)

External links

• Official website
• Robert Milkins at CueTracker.net: Snooker Results and Statistic Database
• Profile on the Global Snooker
• Profile on Pro Snooker Blog