Born: 29 August 1969 Nationality: Northern Irish Seeded: 16 World ranking: 16 Career earnings: �738,957 Ranking points: 19,524 Crucible best: Semi-final (2000 & 2001)

His run to the last four in 2000 included a memorable and emotional one-frame win over former champion John Parrott.

However, Matthew Stevens stopped his progress in the penultimate round as Ronnie O'Sullivan did a year later.

Those achievements were a large factor in helping him become the first person to reclaim a place in the world's top 16 having dropped out of the top 32.

In total he has made the last four of major events no fewer than nine times, but has yet to win a title.

However, this season he has fallen well short of those standards, only claiming the odd win in any of the major tournaments.

The disturbing trend began after he reached the semis of last season's LG Cup.

His failure to do well in subsequent tournaments put his top 16 status for next season in limbo.

But having lost his first-round match in this year's World Championship, Swail will once again find himself having to qualify for the major events next season.