words Gary Baker pictures Steve Pope

TWO huge personal things have happened to Wales' number one snooker player Ryan Day just a few months into 2010.

The Pontycymmer ace became a father for the second time in February, while he has bought some property to lay down business foundations for a future away from the green baize one day.

That day is not yet, though. There is a lot more snooker left on the professional Main Tour for the Welshman who has a world ranking of twelve.

In fact, Day's mindset is quite the opposite from winding down now that new World Snooker boss Barry Hearn has his feet under the snooker table and is starting to plan how to make the cue sport as sexy as the darts he has brought back from the brink of extinction..

Welshman Day has just turned 30, hard to believe that he has been on the professional circuit for just over a decade since turning professional in 1999, with one of his fi rst big scalps being that of six- times world champion Steve Davis whom Day beat 5-4 in the Welsh Open when 4-1 down.

He is also the highest ranked player on the Main Tour to have not won a world ranking tournament, which is a well- known monkey on his back.

However, it is not a monkey he is now that worried about. He would like to win a ranking tournament but he has done enough without it to stamp his mark on the game.

Day's world ranking title drought continued on home soil in January when he lost at the quarter-fi nal stage 5-2 to defending champion Allister Carter at the totesport.com Welsh Open in Newport.

And after wife Lynsey gave birth to their second child - they already have a daughter, Francesca - Day, who

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already has his own snooker club in Pontycymmer, said: "I didn't pick up a cue after the Welsh Open until our child arrived.

"I'm just getting a property now so that I have something solid for the future away from snooker but, right now, I'm trying to establish myself. This is my fourth season in the Top 16 so obviously I can only get more experienced the longer I stay there.

"It's the same with life. It's all about adapting to new situations and that has happened again with the birth of my second child. I love my life."

With Hearn vowing to make as many players as he can millionaires in snooker's new era, the fi nancial future is not too bad either!

Day fi rmly backs the new World Snooker chairman, who is bringing fresh money and impetus into a sport which, with only six ranking tournaments this season, was being pictured as on its' knees by the players themselves as well as outsiders.

"I think it is a similar mindset for most players in that this season was pretty much a write-off. So, with Barry coming in and with a few good months behind him, bringing new sponsors, he is able to do the business and bring things around.

"I personally think he was the best man available to us. Maybe the heydays of the 1980s are not going to be there in the UK for sometime but certainly in Asia and Europe, snooker seems to be popular so this could be where we are heading.

"Hopefully Hearn can bring new vitality because it can then go from strength to strength. At the

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end of the day, you are only there for a few years in this game."

Day is part of a real camaraderie among the Welsh players on the circuit - and only Mark Williams is ranked higher.

All the players support each other around the tournaments and, as much as they are rivals on the table, they are real mates off it.

"When we go away, we are all together as friends. We try to stay in the same hotels and support each other in matches," he explained.

"We go out together, take meals and, when one of us are playing, we give that player 100 per cent."

Day heads to the Far East for the China Open in the last week of this month but has the uneviable tag of being the highest ranked player still not to have won a world ranking tournament, which is, in itself, remarkable.

There are big changes afoot in snooker under Hearn - that could be the third good thing to happen to Day this year. Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52