Top 16 career and Masters winner McManus was a consistent performer on the snooker tour, having a record of fourteen consecutive seasons in the Top 16. He was ranked in the Top 16 from 1990 to 2006, dropping out after an unsuccessful 2005/2006 season. His highest ranking was sixth (in 1993/94 and 1996/97). McManus reached twenty-one professional semi-finals, and won four events. He reached the semi-finals of the
World Championship three times, but never appeared in a final. Until 2005, he had gone eleven years without reaching the quarter-finals of the tournament. McManus's resilience in snooker matchplay can be demonstrated in that the first whitewash of his professional career came in his 0–5 defeat by
Peter Ebdon at the
1998 Grand Prix, his 312th match as a professional player. At the
1994 Masters, McManus defeated
Nigel Bond 5–2 in the first round, Ken Doherty 5–1 in the quarter-finals, and then
Neal Foulds 6–4 in the semi-final to set up his first triple crown tournament final against defending champion and fellow
Scot Stephen Hendry. In what became the highlight of his career, he claimed the
Masters title at Wembley, defeating Hendry 9–8 in the final and thus ending Hendry's unbeaten run in the tournament, which dated back to 1989. He also won the tournament's highest-break prize, £10,000 for a 132 total clearance in the sixth frame of his first-round match against Bond. His last major final was at the
2002 LG Cup, at the
Preston Guild Hall, in which he lost 5–9 to fellow-countryman
Chris Small. He dropped out of the top 16 in the 2005/2006 season, the first time he had done so since 1991. He reached the semi-finals of the
2006 Snooker Grand Prix, losing to
Neil Robertson.
Dropping out of the top 16 He lost a World Championship qualifier 9–10 to
Joe Delaney in 2007. This loss began an extremely quiet six-to-seven-year period for McManus, who then failed to qualify for any UK or World Championships between 2007 and 2013, and also struggled to qualify for the other ranking events (during the period between the 2006 Grand Prix and the
2013 Welsh Open, he failed to qualify for the main stages of 42 ranking events). This loss of form saw him quickly drop out of the top 16, then out of the top 32. His poor form reached a trough in the 2009/2010 season, where he failed to qualify for any of the main stages of the tournaments he took part in. McManus was unable to qualify for any of the major venues during the
2011–12 season and he finished it
ranked as number 52 in the world.
Resurgence He made a good start to the
2012–13 season, beating
Tony Drago and
Robert Milkins to qualify for the final stages of the
Australian Goldfields Open in
Bendigo; there he beat local wildcard James Mifsud 5–0, before exiting the tournament by the same scoreline against
Ding Junhui. At the 2013 Welsh Open, McManus reached his first quarter-final since the 2006 Grand Prix, with a 4–2 win over the number 16 seed
Barry Hawkins, followed by a dramatic comeback to beat
Joe Perry 4–3, after having trailed 0–3. He was beaten in the quarter-final 3–5 by compatriot
Stephen Maguire. The following tournament, the
Haikou World Open, saw McManus win three matches in qualifying to reach the latter stages of the tournament; he then beat local wildcard Lin Shuai 5–3, before facing compatriot John Higgins. McManus put in a good performance; he ultimately lost 3–5, but picked up valuable ranking points in the process. He made a good start to the
Players Tour Championship, reaching the quarter-finals of the
first event, losing to
Andrew Higginson by 4 frames to 3. He carried this good form to the
PTC event 2, once again reaching the quarter-finals before losing 1–4 to eventual runner-up Stephen Maguire. However, McManus only managed four last-32 results from the rest of the events. This led to him being ranked 31st in the Order of Merit, just missing out on the top 28 players that qualified for the
finals. At the
2013 World Snooker Championship McManus, in qualifying, beating
Aditya Mehta 10–9, in an epic encounter that lasted just over 9 hours. He then defeated
1995 World finalist
Nigel Bond 10–8 in the penultimate qualifying round. In the final qualifying round he led
Tom Ford 5–4 after the first session; he then reeled off five of the next six frames to book his place at the
Crucible Theatre for the first time since
2006. In the first round he lost to Ding Junhui 5–10, winning £12,000.
2013/2014 season At the start of the
2013–14 season McManus was ranked 49th in the
World Rankings. At the
2013 Wuxi Classic qualifiers he won his match against
Darryl Hill 5–3 to qualify for the last 64 of the event held in
Wuxi. At the venue he defeated Ken Doherty 5–3 before losing to
Dave Gilbert 2–5. At the first
Asian Tour event, he bested players such as
Michael White before beating local favorite Ding Junhui 4–2 in the last 16. He then defeated
Yu Delu 4–1 in the quarter-finals, reaching his first semi-final in nine years. In the semi-final he lost to eventual winner Joe Perry 2–4, despite having been 2–1 up. McManus qualified for the inaugural
Indian Open, beating amateur
Sydney Wilson 4–1 in qualifying. He was then beaten 1–4 in the last 64 by
Zhang Anda. McManus followed up this result by qualifying for the
International Championship in beating Darren Cook 6–0. He then defeated local wildcard
Zhou Yuelong 6–5, coming back from 2–4 down. In the last 64 he produced the shock of the tournament by beating defending champion
Judd Trump 6–5, having been 3–4 down. However he was defeated 4–6 by
Ryan Day in the following round. At the
2013 UK Championship, McManus defeated
Joel Walker 6–5, winning the match on a respotted black, before losing to
Michael Holt 4–6 in the last 64. McManus reached the last 16 of the
German Masters, defeating
Jak Jones 5–1 in qualifying. At the
Tempodrom he defeated Peter Ebdon and
Jack Lisowski, both by 5–2 scorelines, before being himself beaten 2–5 by Michael Holt. McManus continued his good form into the final European Tour event of the season, where he reached the last 16 by defeating players such as
Neil Robertson and
Graeme Dott before losing to
Fergal O'Brien. Despite also reaching the last 16 of the final Asian Tour Event of the season, McManus narrowly missed out on qualification for the Players Championship Grand Final by one place. He lost to
Mark King in the second round of the
Welsh Open and failed to qualify for the
China Open, but was to finish the season strongly. He reached the quarter-final of the
World Open, losing to
Mark Selby. The
2014 World Snooker Championship, saw McManus beat John Higgins 10–7 in the first round and then defeat Ken Doherty 13–8, to set up another quarter-final with Mark Selby. McManus performed well early on, but Selby ran away with the match in the second session to leave the Scot trailing 4–12. McManus was able to claw back the first frame of the final session but Selby won the next frame to clinch the match 13–5.
2014/2015 season McManus continued his good form into the
2014–15 season by reaching the last 16 of the first ranking event of the season, the
2014 Wuxi Classic, where he was beaten 2–5 by Barry Hawkins. He then reached the last 16 of the
Australian Goldfields Open, before losing 3–5 to Judd Trump. McManus reached the quarter-finals of the
Shanghai Masters by beating
Jamie Jones to qualify, before defeating Ronnie O'Sullivan 5–3 and Stephen Maguire 5–1 but then lost to the eventual winner of the tournament
Stuart Bingham 1–5. McManus was able to keep up his 100% record in qualifying matches for the season by comfortably defeating
Michael Georgiou to qualify for the
International Championship, but was edged out by
Anthony McGill in the last 64 of the tournament. McManus would lose in the first round of the
UK Championship to Joel Walker. This gave him entry into the
Grand Final where he was defeated 1–4 by Bingham in the first round.
2015/2016 season McManus started strongly in the
2015–16 season, reaching the quarter-finals of the first event, the
Riga Open, with wins over Stephen Maguire, Judd Trump and others before losing to the eventual champion Barry Hawkins 2–4. As McManus did not enter the
Australian Goldfields Open, his first ranking event of the season came at the
Shanghai Masters. He defeated
Rory McLeod 5–4 to qualify for the tournament, and then defeated wildcard Yao Pengcheng 5–2, before losing 1–5 to Ding Junhui. After an early exit in the
Paul Hunter Classic, McManus reached the quarter-finals of the
Ruhr Open, losing 3–4 to
Tian Pengfei. It was during his first-round match in this tournament that he and his opponent
Barry Pinches broke the record for the longest official frame of snooker. The frame lasted for 100 minutes and 24 seconds, with Pinches eventually winning the frame, although McManus would go on to win the match. The record stood until April 2017. McManus qualified for the 2016 World Championship with comfortable victories over Michael Wasley, David Morris and Jimmy Robertson. In the first round at the Crucible he defeated his fellow-countryman Stephen Maguire 10–7, before overcoming Ali Carter 13–11 in round two. His quarter-final saw him come from 9–11 down against John Higgins to take the final four frames and win 13–11, setting up his first semi-final appearance at the World Championship since 1993. In that semi-final he lost to Ding Junhui 11–17. His end-of-season ranking of 20 was the highest he had been in a decade.
2016/2017 season In the
2016–17 season the furthest McManus could progress in an event was at the
World Open, where he beat
Jamie Cope and
Liang Wenbo, but he was thrashed 0–5 by
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh. He would also reach the third round in the
2016 Paul Hunter Classic, defeating
Andy Hicks and
Christopher Keogan, both 4–1, before coming up short against
Tom Ford.
2017/2018 season McManus started the
2017–18 season at number 32 in the world rankings; and would reach the third round of both the
2017 China Championship and
2017 Paul Hunter Classic. He would also reach the second round of the
2017 UK Championship with a 6–3 win over
Robin Hull; before losing a final frame decider to
Jimmy Robertson 5–6. == Performance and rankings timeline ==