Scotland's Dean Young will usher in his first professional season with determination and determination.
Dean Young (right) wins the WST Challenge Tour in Belgium in 2019
In the recent Q School event, Dean Young successfully obtained a two-year professional qualification, becoming the only newcomer to the professional competition among the 14 professionally qualified players in this Q School event. The 19-year-old has already tasted victory in professional competitions as an amateur player, beating David Grace and Liam Highfield to reach the round of 32 in the 2020 single-time limited time tournament. He will now play at WST for the first time as a professional player.
WST approached Dean Young and talked about his relationship with Snooker...
WST: Dean, congratulations on your good grades at Q School, but how did you get started with snooker in the first place?
DY (Dean Young): I watched snooker on TV a few times before playing, and I used to ask my father how he could experience it, and he thought I was too young to go to the ball hall, so he bought me a six-foot table and put it in the living room, and I got into a relationship with snooker.
When I was about seven years old, one rainy day, my father took me to a local snooker club, and I became fascinated by the sport ever since. My father would teach me the basics, such as handcuffs and the like, and then took me to learn ball with former professional player Chris Small, until I was about 16 years old, which made me improve tremendously.
WST: Father has had a big impact on your career.
DY: He's a good player himself, with a single top score of 89, but he only plays in some leagues locally. He would take me to all kinds of tournaments around Scotland, and if I made the final it would be troublesome because the final was usually held on Wednesday night in Glasgow, and he was a bricklayer who had to change clothes and wash when he got home from work and then drove me to Edinburgh. He gave me a lot of motivation and I wouldn't have had everything I have now without my father.
WST: How proud are you to be the only rookie among the players who qualified professionally at this year's Q School?
DY: This year's squad is very strong, and neither michael White nor James Cahill has been able to qualify professionally, which is enough to show how hard the game is. I've been in two previous sessions, and I've fought until the last day, so I felt that if I could maintain this state, I would definitely have a chance to enter the profession. The feeling of the ball crossing the finish line in the end was really unbelievable.
WST: You've been training with Scott Donaldson, who is no. 34 in the world, over the years, and how has that affected you in improving your level?
DY: The day-to-day training games with him have improved my strength a lot, we have played a lot together, and the advice he gave me was to let me sink my head a little more when I hit the ball, and said that I was strong enough to get into the professional game and made me more confident. He has witnessed my growth over the years, and it is important for me that a player of his level can praise me for my strength. He's been beating me up in games for years, but I'd say that now that I've caught up, I have to play against good players to improve.
WST: Can you be specific about where playing scott has lifted you the most?
DY: Maybe it's my temperament, I used to be terrible at this point, and he was calm at all times, now my temper is much better, you know, I played when I was 12 years old, and I broke a pair of clubs. Now I don't hammer the table or anything like that, it's completely changed and I'm more mature. If you are angry, it will only benefit your opponent.
Young played in a single time limit
WST: What are your expectations for the next two years?
DY: As a professional player, you have to make sure to keep your professional qualifications for the first two years, and that's my goal, if you can't keep them, you have to go to Q School to compete for professional qualifications, so you can keep them first.