Joe Perry finds himself fighting for his place on the professional tour this season, but he is relishing the challenge after putting thoughts of retirement behind him.
The Gentleman, who turned 50 this week, had such a nightmare season last time around that for the first time in over 30 years his professional status is in doubt.
Currently ranked number 46 in the world, Perry’s provisional end of season ranking is 68, so he has work to do and matches to win to stay on tour.
‘I’ve never had to think about that. I’ve been on the main tour since 1992 and my position has never been in doubt whatsoever,’ Perry told Metro.
‘I’ve been in and out of the top 16, that was often my target at the start of the season, at the other end of the scale. This is a new challenge and it brings different pressures, but I’m looking forward to it.
‘I quite enjoyed the recent qualifiers, even though I didn’t get the results I wanted. I played well and the players that beat me played exceptionally well. I enjoyed it though, which is something that I didn’t do all last year. I didn’t enjoy how I was playing, I didn’t enjoy the competition.’
Perry won just 12 matches last season and after losing in his World Championship qualifying opener he was genuinely thinking about hanging up his cue.
There was one positive distraction for him last season as he opened his own snooker club, which ate into his practice time, but there was a negative reason for his downturn in form as well.
‘I was considering stopping. Last year was a write-off for me and there were a couple of reasons for that,’ he said.
‘I got off to a decent start to the season, I won my Championship League group, won my first qualifier 5-0, I was in a good place. Then I found myself caught up in the Mark King debacle, through no fault of my own.’
The verdict of the investigation is still to be announced, so Perry cannot go into detail, but he says: ‘I didn’t like the way I was treated. It rocked my whole season, ruined it basically.’
The Gent lost five matches on the spin in August and September, managed to stop the rot but then came Joe Perry’s Snooker and Pool Palace in Chatteris.
‘I finally got myself back in order and then we had the opportunity to buy the premises to open the snooker club. That took over my life so I just wasn’t playing,’ he said.
‘I didn’t want to be a professional snooker player and not be professional about it. I was literally going from tournament to tournament and not playing in between. That’s completely out of character, I’ve never been like that, I’ve always practiced hard for tournaments.
‘There was a couple of times where I had to take my cue out of the ski tube to play in the next tournament because I literally hadn’t touched it. You can’t do that, the game’s too hard, especially now the standard’s incredible. I thought, if I can’t find the time to practice I’m not going to keep embarrassing myself playing how I did last year.
‘But I had a good think about it and compromised slightly with the club. I’ve managed to shuffle things around so I can play at least one or two hours a day. Then see Neil [Robertson] once or twice a week. I’m going to give it a go. I’ve got my work cut out this year because I’ve had a couple of bad years, but I’m going to give it a go. I’m quite looking forward to the challenge actually.’
While Perry is still motivated to play, perform and win, he is also working in a mentoring role with his long-time friend and practice partner Robertson.
The Australian also had a nightmare season last time round, but Perry feels he is already looking back to somewhere near his incredible best.
‘I’m really enjoying it. I think he is too, I hope he is,’ said Perry. ‘He’s pretty much back to where he was. There’s a win or something close round the corner.
‘I think we’ll see a different Neil Robertson this year. I’m not taking much credit, it’s down to Neil and the hard work he’s put in. But I’ve enjoyed to helping him get back to where he should be.’
Next up for Perry is a clash with Jack Lisowski at the Xi’an Grand Prix on Monday and he is looking forward to a battle with someone he would love to mentor as well in the years to come.
‘He’s nice to play. If he gets on one he’s hard to stop, but either way he’s nice to play. You know what you get with Jack, it’s going to be an enjoyable game,’ said the Gentleman.
‘I’m new to this player analysis kind of role. I know he tried working with [Peter] Ebdon, but Ebdon…I’m sure he knows more than me about snooker, but I never saw it as a winning formula, I never saw that working.
‘But in the future I’d love to have a crack with someone like Jack who’s just got talent to die for. There’s nothing he can’t do on a snooker table but for some reason it doesn’t happen often enough.
‘Neil’s quite simple really, he’s brilliant, he does everything properly. If his mind is in the right place it’s pretty much inevitable he’s going to win, but you don’t really know that with Jack.’
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