Martin O'Donnell

Bio

Martin O’Donnell reached the first ranking event final of his career at the 2024 Welsh Open in Lladudno.

Having defeated Ryan Thomserson in a decider to reach the televised stages, O’Donnell then overcame Chris Wakelin, Anthony Hamilton, Marco Fu, reigning world champion Luca Brecel and Elliott Slessor to reach his maiden ranking final.

It would prove not to be O’Donnell’s day in Lladudno as Gary Wilson took the title with a 9-4 victory, but the unexpected run helped the Englishman end his first season back on the World Snooker Tour inside the top 64 in the rankings.

O’Donnell’s previous best run had come at the 2018 Shoot Out where he enjoyed his breakthrough on the circuit as he defeated Mitchell Mann, Noppon Saengkham, Jamie Jones and Sunny Akani to reach the last four, losing to eventual champion Michael Georgiou.

The following season he reached the quarter-finals of three ranking events, most notably at the UK Championship where he defeated Ding Junhui before falling to eventual champion Ronnie O’Sullivan.

Amateur Career

O’Donnell is also a two-time English Amateur Championship runner-up (2006 and 2012) and during the 2022/23 season won two events as an amateur during the WPBSA Q Tour to regain his professional place for the following two seasons.