Joe Perry confirmed that the 2025 World Snooker Championship will be his last tournament as a professional player on the main tour.
The 50 year-old beat Dylan Emery 10-6 at the English Institute of Sport on Thursday to reach the penultimate round of the qualifying competition.
Perry was already struggling for tour survival with his end-of-season ranking provisionally outside the crucial top 64 cut-off line.
Yet the two-time ranking event winner has opted against prolonging his 33-year career on the World Snooker Tour, regardless of what happens in Sheffield this month.
With two more wins required to reach the Crucible, Perry is targeting the iconic venue as a poignant setting for his farewell.
“I have officially retired,” former world number eight Joe Perry told the World Snooker Tour.
“I will continue to play snooker, because I’m going to be in the World Seniors Championship, but my time as a professional snooker player is up after this tournament.”
“It’s alright, I was less nervous today than I was in the last two or three years coming here. There was a lot depending on it the last few years.
“Now, I’m just trying to enjoy it. It’s not easy when you play as ropy as I do these days, but I’m trying my best.
“The pressure is different. I know that if they get to nine, it’s potentially my last ever frame. But so be it.
“I’ve taken a long time to come to this decision, it’s not a rash decision. I’ve thought about it for the last 12 or 18 months.
“I decided midway through this season that enough was enough.
“That’s the aim this week [to reach the Crucible], I’m trying as hard as ever out there. If I can play my last match at the Crucible, wonderful.
“If it ends up being here, then that’s what it is. I would love to play my last ever game at the Crucible, but it’s going to be tough.
“The boys are so good these days, the standard is so high. But all the time that I’m around, I’ve got a chance.
“Obviously I couldn’t make this decision nine months ago, because I was still humming and hawing about whether I wanted to be on tour or not.
“But I wish I’d come to this decision a lot sooner, because I’ve not enjoyed this season. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed any match I’ve played this season.
“I enjoyed that one, and not just because I won. I genuinely enjoyed that game. I haven’t enjoyed any of the others, I was just going through the motions.
“I travelled to Yushan, and I really didn’t want to do that. But that’s not me – I’ve pulled out of only one event in my entire career, when my little girl was born.
“Other than that, I was just going to see it through until the end. So I wish I’d made this concrete decision at the start of the season.
“Then I might have enjoyed this season a bit more.”
Joe Perry first turned professional in 1992, graduating alongside the likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan, John Higgins, and Mark Williams.
Although he didn’t quite reach the dizzying heights of his contemporaries, the Englishman still carved out a successful career for himself.
He was a regular member of the top 16 and frequently reached the latter stages of major events, including the 2017 Masters final.
Two years earlier, Perry had realised a lifelong dream of joining the exclusive club of players to win a ranking event.
A disappointing ceremony at the PTC Grand Finals in which he didn’t even receive a trophy was bettered in 2022 when he added the Welsh Open crown to his trophy cabinet.
Perry also emerged with two minor ranking titles on the defunct APTC series and was the inaugural winner of Championship League Snooker back in 2008.
Known as the Gentleman, the former World Championship semi-finalist will soon turn his attention to the seniors circuit.
Before that, though, Perry will look to extend his last hurrah as a professional when he faces Yuan Sijun in the third round of the qualifiers on Saturday.
Featured photo credit: WST
