Michael Wild (born 27 March 1981) is an English former professional snooker player.
During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Wild competed in the Challenge Tour and International Open Series events, without much success until the 2002/2003 season, when he reached the last 16 at Challenge Tour events 1 and 2; these performances were sufficient for him to earn a place on the sport's main tour, which he took up in 2003.
Wild's first season as a professional brought little success itself, his best finish a run to the last 80 in the British Open, where he beat Kristján Helgason and Munraj Pal, before losing to Mike Dunn. He won only ã3,850 prize money during the season and, finishing it ranked 121st, fell off the tour.
Several years of attempting to qualify again for the main tour through the International Open Series followed; during the 2005/2006 season, he reached the semi-finals in Event 1 - losing 1âÂÂ5 to Martin Gould - and the quarter-finals in Event 3, where Liu Song beat him 5âÂÂ2. Another semi-final came in 2007, before Wild recorded his first run to the final of a tournament, in Event 4 of that year's series. There his opponents included Robert Stephen and David Grace, but in the final, he lost 3âÂÂ6 to Matthew Couch.
With the advent of the Players Tour Championship in the 2010âÂÂ11 season, Wild found form after another lean period, recording two last-64 finishes - in Event 2 and EPTC1, where he lost 2âÂÂ4 to Dave Harold and 1âÂÂ4 to Ricky Walden respectively. He entered Q-School in 2011 and reached the quarter-finals of the second event, but, leading David Morris 3âÂÂ1 and requiring only one more win to return to the tour, eventually lost 3âÂÂ4.
Having fared better in Q-School the following year, Wild was invited to play in several ranking events in 2012âÂÂ13 season as a top-up amateur, and competed in his first such event in eight years at the 2012 Wuxi Classic qualifying stage. He was drawn to play Craig Steadman and led 2âÂÂ0, but could not prevent a 3âÂÂ5 defeat. In the 2012 Australian Goldfields Open, he came within one win of reaching the televised stages in Bendigo, beating Daniel Wells 5âÂÂ0, Simon Bedford 5âÂÂ2 and six-time World Champion Steve Davis 5âÂÂ0, but lost in the final round 0âÂÂ5 to Ken Doherty.
Wild enjoyed further success at the 2012 Paul Hunter Classic, where he defeated Jordan Brown, Marcus Campbell and Scott Donaldson before being eliminated in the last 16, losing 3âÂÂ4 to Doherty. The two would meet in another two matches during the season, both of these also resulting in 4âÂÂ3 victories for Doherty - in the 2012 Scottish Open and the Munich Open.
In 2015, Wild won the EBSA European Snooker Championship, beating Jamie Clarke 7âÂÂ4 in the final, to win back his place on the main tour after twelve years away.
In his first season back on the tour, Wild produced the finest performance of his career in whitewashing former world number one Judd Trump 6âÂÂ0 in the 2015 International Championship qualifying round, but lost all seven of his matches thereafter - 0âÂÂ6 to Sanderson Lam in the next qualifying round, by the same scoreline to Dominic Dale in the UK Championship, 3âÂÂ5 to Anthony McGill in the German Masters, 3âÂÂ4 to Jimmy Robertson in the Welsh Open, 2âÂÂ4 to Mark King in the Gdynia Open, 2âÂÂ5 to Tom Ford in the China Open and 6âÂÂ10 - having trailed 0âÂÂ9 - to Michael Holt in the World Championship. As a result, he ended the season ranked 110th.
He recorded his first victory of the 2016âÂÂ17 season in the 2016 European Masters, defeating Cao Yupeng 4âÂÂ3 from 1âÂÂ3 behind, and followed this with a similar deciding-frame win over Jamie Jones from 0âÂÂ3 behind, to reach the televised stages of a ranking tournament for the first time in his career.