Chris Melling
Tournament wins
Melling in 2012
Born	(1979-01-27) 27 January 1979 (age 45)^[1] Keighley, Bradford, West Yorkshire.^[1]
Sport country	England
Nickname	the Magician^[2]
Professional	1998
Best ranking finish	Quarter finals 2013 WPA World Nine-ball Championship
World Champion	English Eight-ball (2001, 2003)

Christopher Melling (born 27 January 1979) is an English professional pool and snooker player from Keighley, Bradford, West Yorkshire.^[1] He's a former world number 1 at World Rules British Eight-Ball. He won the WEPF World Eightball Championship twice, in 2001 and 2003. He was ranked #1 in 2003 by the World Eightball Pool Federation.^[3] Melling has also twice won the International Pool Masters (2001 and 2002) and the European Professional title (2002). He was the first player to win two International Tour events back to back. His entrance by walk-on music is from the song “Wannabe” by Spice Girls. Melling is also the only cue sports player to hold professional status in English 8 ball, American pool and snooker.^{[citation needed]}

Career

In 2001, Melling reached the last 16 of the 2001 WPA World Nine-ball Championship in Cardiff, beating Steve Davis along the way.^[4]

Melling tours worldwide to pursue his 9-ball pool career. In October 2010 he won his first European 9-Ball event - the Portugal Open. On 12 June 2011 Melling was crowned China Open champion and received $40,000. This was his first major 9-Ball Pool tournament victory.

In December 2011, Melling participated in the 18th annual Mosconi Cup, and won four of his six matches.^[5] A year later he won the Most Valuable Player Award in the 2012 Mosconi Cup.^[6]

In January 2013, he reached the final of the Chinese 8-Ball Masters, losing to Gareth Potts. He also lost to Potts in the final of the 2005 World Rules 8-Ball Championship. Also in 2013 he reached the quarter finals of the 2013 WPA World Nine-ball Championship, the World Masters, World Cup of Pool and finished 5th in the US Open 9-Ball Championship.

In May 2014, Melling entered the snooker 2014 Q School in an attempt to regain his professional status and defeated the likes of former professionals Daniel Wells and Chen Zhe 4–3 and 4–1 respectively, before winning his quarter-final match against Duane Jones 4–3 to earn a two-year tour card for the 2014–15 and 2015–16 seasons.^[7] This saw him become the first person to have been a professional in 8-Ball Pool, 9-Ball Pool and Snooker at the same time.

His first match as a professional saw him beat 2003 UK Championship winner Matthew Stevens 5–4 to qualify for the 2014 Wuxi Classic, but he lost 5–1 to Zhao Xintong in the first round.^[8] Melling also played in the first round of the International Championship by defeating Luca Brecel 6–5 and was knocked out 6–1 by Zhou Yuelong. His first victory at the venue stage of a ranking event came at the Welsh Open after he edged out Nigel Bond 4–3, before being whitewashed 4–0 by home favourite Michael White in the second round.^[8]

The 2015–16 season proved harder for Melling as he could only win four matches all year.^[9] He dropped off the tour at the end of the season and could not win enough matches at the 2016 Q School to win his place back.^[10]

Snooker performance and rankings timeline

Tournament	2000/ 01	2001/ 02	2002/ 03	2003/ 04	2004/ 05	2006/ 07	2014/ 15	2015/ 16
Ranking^[11]^{[nb 1]}	^{[nb 2]}	^{[nb 3]}	^{[nb 2]}	^{[nb 3]}	^{[nb 2]}	^{[nb 3]}	^{[nb 3]}	79
Ranking tournaments
Australian Goldfields Open	Tournament Not Held						LQ	A
Shanghai Masters	Tournament Not Held						LQ	LQ
International Championship	Tournament Not Held						1R	LQ
UK Championship	A	LQ	A	LQ	A	LQ	1R	1R
German Masters	Tournament Not Held						LQ	LQ
Welsh Open	A	LQ	A	LQ	A	LQ	2R	1R
World Grand Prix	Tournament Not Held						NR	DNQ
Players Tour Championship Finals	Tournament Not Held						DNQ	DNQ
China Open	A	LQ	Not Held		A	LQ	LQ	LQ
World Championship	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ	LQ
Non-ranking tournaments
The Masters	A	A	A	LQ	A	A	A	A
Former ranking tournaments
Thailand Masters	A	LQ	NR	Not Held		NR	Not Held
Scottish Open^{[nb 4]}	A	LQ	A	LQ	Tournament Not Held
British Open	A	LQ	A	LQ	A	Not Held
Irish Masters	NR		A	LQ	A	NR	Not Held
Malta Cup^{[nb 5]}	NR	LQ	A	LQ	A	LQ	Not Held
Northern Ireland Trophy	Tournament Not Held					LQ	Not Held
Grand Prix^{[nb 6]}	A	LQ	A	LQ	A	LQ	Not Held
Wuxi Classic^{[nb 7]}	Tournament Not Held						1R	NH
Indian Open	Tournament Not Held						LQ	NH

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.
PA / Pro-am Event				means an event is/was a pro-am event.

^ From the 2010/2011 season it shows the ranking at the beginning of the season.
^ ^a ^b ^c He was an amateur.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d New players on the Main Tour do not have a ranking
^ The event was called the Players Championship (2003/2004)
^ The event was also called the European Open (2001/2002–2003/2004)
^ The event was also called the LG Cup (2001/2002–2003/2004)
^ The event was called the Jiangsu Classic (2008/2009–2009/2010)