Sheffield-born Adam Duffy is hoping for a better campaign in 2013/14 as he looks to qualify for his first major finals
Snooker star Adam Duffy is relishing the upcoming season after having an less than impressive 2012/13 campaign.
The 24-year-old from Sheffield has a desire to make further strives this season after he admitted he did not train as hard once he made it into the world’s top 64.
That resulted in Duffy failing to make the final stages of any major tournament last season and he fell at the second hurdle of qualifying for the Betfair World Championship in his home city.
He said: “I would like to really perform this season and try and get into the top 48 before then getting into the top 32. I want to keep working up and going as far as I can.
“I really struggled last season which is really disappointing. I did not work as hard as what I should have done in hindsight. I have learnt a lot from that as well.
“I had an unbelievable season the year before because I got into the top 64 in the world. I thought that I had made it when I got to that ranking, but it came as a reality shock and I recognised that I had to work even harder to progress higher up the rankings.”
Duffy lost 10-6 to Joe Swail during the qualifying stages for the prestigious event at the Crucible Theatre and he admitted he was disappointed with the final outcome after he found himself in the lead after a commanding opening session.
“I was 5-4 up after the first session and I felt rather confident with the way that I was playing. All areas of my game was good, I was potting really well and my safety play was also really good,” Duffy said.
“I went back to the hotel and just chilled out and I just thought it would be the same again in the second session but, Joe changed his game. I was always chasing his game.
“He was playing a really good safety shot and I was only able to play decent safety shots. He was using his experience and that helped him beat me 10-6.”
Duffy feels that his lack of experience in major competitions and his opponents’ vast experience on the big stage has become a major factor on him not being able to make it to the major events.
“I felt short again to experience. Peter Ebdon beat me and he used all of his experience to ensure that he got the better of me.
“They are just class players. I think Joe Swail got to two semi-finals or something like that before so there is so much experience there and then there is Ebdon who is a world champion,” Duffy continued.
“I would like to think I will be able to make it to a finals this year, but like I said earlier once that happens I would like to think more will not be far away.
However, despite not qualifying for a major finals, the Sheffield born cue man is hopeful of making it to an event within the next couple of months as many of the qualifying schemes are changing.
In some cases Duffy will only have to win one match in order to qualify for a major tournament instead of three or four. Nonetheless, the current format will remain in place for next year’s Betfair World Championship, Australian Open and Shanghai Masters.
“I think that new qualifying scheme is going to be rather good. I hope it could benefit me a lot so that I will be able to compete at the major events on a regular basis,” he said.
“I think there are still three tournaments that will have the traditional format. I have heard that some of the tournaments are going to be taking part in big arenas, there are some taking place at like the Barnsley Metro Dome and the Doncaster Dome so it should be decent.”
Duffy, who turned professional in 2011, does have some previous tournament experience after he appeared in the first round of Betfair Snooker Shoot-out in Blackpool where he lost 61-35 to Jack Lisowski.
Despite playing in front of a packed audience for one of the first times in his career, he admitted the occasion and surroundings overcame him slightly.
He said: “I got the experience for a proper tournament when I went to the Snooker Shoot-out and that was a really different experience.
“I could not hear myself think because it was that loud. There were a lot of cameras and I have now played on a few Eurosport channels so I was used to that.
“It was different, not only was it difficult because of the atmosphere but there are lots of new rules that you have to remember – and then you have got the shot clock.”
Duffy added: “I would have been settling down to play a shot and forget about the clock, then this buzzer would go off and I would just have to play a shot.”
The 24-year-old will make his first appearance for the new season in the qualifying stages of the Wuxi Classic which take place in Gloucester even though the tournament actually takes place in China.
“I will be going down to Gloucester for the Wuxi Classic qualifiers. Obviously it is in China but that is where the qualifying rounds are. I am hopeful that I will be able to make it there if I continue to work hard. The missus is always telling me to work really hard so this year I will work hard. I am confident and good enough so there is no reason why I should not qualify,” Duffy said.
Duffy says his career highlight came in Germany when he played four-time World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan in the Paul Hunter Classic.
That event, which took place in 2011, in Furth near Nuremberg saw Duffy make his first appearance on television.
“It would probably be when I made my debut on television against Ronnie O’Sullivan. I lost 4-0 to him at the 2011 Paul Hunter Classic in Germany,” Duffy said.
“I never had that much time to think about it and how I was going to prepare for it. I finished my match against Joe Swail at 7:15 and then I was told that I was going straight back on. I asked who against and he said Ronnie O’Sullivan, so I had 10 minutes to ponder it and he played that day like he has done the last couple of days here.”
He added: “I took a lot of positives out of that match.”
Every time Duffy plays a frame of snooker he admits he learns how he can improve in order to achieve his dream of moving further up the rankings.
He has aspirations of becoming a household name in the game and thinks that will be aided by making his first major finals.
“It is very disappointing that I have never made it to the finals of a tournament. I think I am one of only a small handful of players that have not made it to the finals of a tournament that are ranked inside the top 64 of the world.
“I think once I get to one event then they will just snowball into more. Once I have got a taste for what a major finals is like then I will know what it is all about.”
Duffy added: “I learn a lot from every match because you are always looking to build for your next match that is coming up. To be honest I cannot wait for next season and all of the tournaments that are coming up.”
The South Yorkshire lad got into snooker after playing the game casually with friends and family after playing Sunday league football.
He went on to say that after he quit football he started playing in tournaments put on by the late Malcolm Thorne, the brother of Willie Thorne.
That is where Duffy became friends with one of the four Betfair World Championship semi-finalists, Judd Trump. They both played in the tournaments together and since then have become really good mates.
Despite Trump being the more successful of the two players Duffy says that he likes to play his own way, but he also wants to emulate the current world number three.
Duffy said: “He plays a really attacking game, which is something that I am trying to do. The only thing is, he is playing it on a day-to-day basis whereas I am only ever play it on the practice table. Every time I watch him I learn a lot from him and his game.
“I do not really get to practice with him a lot at all nowadays. The only time that happens is if he comes up to mine or if I go down to his and we will normally practice against each other for about a week.”
Duffy says he has not been an avid watcher of this year’s Betfair World Championship as he did not make the final 32.
Instead he has been on the practice table in preparation for next season and when he has had the chance he has popped down to the Crucible to cheer on his close friend Trump who is in semi-final action against Ronnie O’Sullivan.
He said: “I have not really watched much of it to be honest. I have started watching it a little bit more now that Ronnie and Judd are playing most days. With that many big names dropping out so far in this tournament I cannot really call a winner on this.”
One of the characters of this year’s tournament is Dechawat Poomjaeng, a player that Duffy has only known on the circuit for around a year. However, he says that he is a mental character even away from the television screens.
“Jack is not wired up properly. I know him quite well playing through the academy. I once bought him a pint of Boddingtons so you can imagine what he was like after a pint of that. He is crackers and a great character to have around.”
Duffy continued: “He is just funny, positive and he does not really get down about anything. You look at him and you just laugh, not laugh at him, but just because he is funny. I have only known him about a year. What I find weird is that when he coughs it sounds like he is laughing.
“So I would have played a shocking shot and it sounds like he is laughing so when I turn to him his face is just so serious.”
The Sheffield born star indicated that he gets down when the World Championship comes to his home city when he has not qualified.
He says that coming here regularly as a child made him want to grace the green baize of the Crucible.
“It is annoying me now that I am not here when I am watching Judd and all the rest of the guys. Playing here is something that I have dreamt about for a long time, maybe I do not dream about it as much now. I came here so many times as a child to watch the snooker I only ever wanted to play here,” he said.
Words: Adam Grice
Photo: Sheffield Star
The Sporting Section 