Stephen Lee (born 12 October 1974) is a professional snooker-player from Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England, noted for his smooth cue action that some pundits regard as the most natural in the game. He has won four ranking titles, and spent 10 seasons in the Top 16 of the world rankings (including 6 in the top 8) before dropping out for the 2008/2009 Snooker Season. Lee has compiled 127 competitive centuries during his career.
Lee turned professional after winning the English Amateur Championship in 1992. During his first season as a professional he had a run of 33 successive frames won during qualifying matches, an all-time professional record. He reached the Top 16 of the rankings five years later, which meant he no longer needed to play qualifying rounds for ranking events, and entered the Top 8 after winning his first ranking title during the 1998/1999 season.
Lee's ranking tournaments victories including the prestigious Grand Prix twice (in 1998 & 2001), with a World Championships best run to the semi-finals (in the 2003 event). His first ranking title and first two ranking semi-finals were all achieved without beating a top-16 player . In the 2001-2002 season he scored more ranking points than any other player (winning the Scottish Open as well as the Grand Prix), thus briefly making him the provisional world #1 early in the following season. Lee was favourite to win the 2001 Masters, but lost 5-6 in the first round to Dave Harold.
In the 2006 Welsh Open he came to the competition outside the provisional Top 16 after failing to win a ranking tournament for four years. He went on to win the tournament, beating the World Champion, Shaun Murphy 9-4 in the final.
For 2007-2008 he slipped to #13 in the rankings after reaching just one semi-final, partly due to missing the China Open for personal reasons,. He nevertheless reached the final of the 2008 Masters, losing 10-3 to Mark Selby. Following a heavy defeat by Joe Swail in the first round of the 2008 World Championship, confirming his drop out of the top 16 of the rankings, Lee considered retiring from the game.
However, he did compete in the first ranking event of the 2008/2008 season, the 2008 Northern Ireland Trophy, and after convincing wins over Judd Trump and Stephen Hendry, he reached the Top 32, where despite making three century breaks he lost 4-5 to eventual runner-up Dave Harold. He then failed to qualify for the Shanghai Masters, losing 4-5 to Tom Ford.
He married long-term partner Laura in the summer of 2005 in Florida. He has four children - a daughter called Shana, son Connor and twin sons Ronnie and Alfie.
