Early career Cope had an impressive record as a junior, but dropped off the Main Tour after two largely unsuccessful seasons. However, he finished top in the Challenge Tour for emerging players in the
2004–05 season, winning two of its four tournaments. This enabled him to return to the Main Tour. His stated intention in pre-season was to finish the year in the
Top 48, a tough target which
he technically achieved by default after
Paul Hunter's illness. He reached the last 16 of the season-opening
Grand Prix tournament. Later in the
2005–06 season he reached the same stage of the
Welsh Open and
China Open. Those three last-16 defeats were all 5–4. During the season he claimed wins over
Joe Perry,
Steve Davis,
John Parrott and
Alan McManus. Cope has the distinction of being the first player in snooker history to post a verified
155 break achieved in a practice frame in 2005.
2006–2010 On 23 October 2006, Cope made a 147 break in a match against
Michael Holt during the Grand Prix in
Aberdeen, Scotland. He was only the third player to achieve a 147 in the tournament's history, after
Ronnie O'Sullivan and
John Higgins. (Tom Ford has since become the fourth man to make a 147 at the Grand Prix, on 15 October 2007.) After progressing from the group stages, Cope defeated
Robert Milkins in the last-16 to reach his first quarter-final in ranking events. He beat Joe Perry again in a closely fought match which required a deciding ninth . Eventually, Cope won after a slip-up by Perry on . In the semi-finals Cope defeated
Mark King 6–3, but he lost 5–9 to Australian competitor
Neil Robertson in the final. Cope had struggled early in the match and fell 2–8 behind. He briefly rallied to claim the next three frames, but Robertson won the fourteenth frame to clinch the title. On 31 March 2007, Cope progressed into the final of the China Open against
Graeme Dott, after beating
Barry Hawkins on the last of the final frame in the semi-finals, after requiring a snooker. However, he lost the final, again by 5 frames to 9. In the
2007–08 season, he reached the last 32 of the
Shanghai Masters losing 2–5 to John Higgins. He failed to progress beyond the group stages in the Grand Prix 2007, finishing sixth in his group, not winning a match. In the
UK Championship Cope produced a very good performance in beating the then world number one John Higgins 9–3 in the last 32. He then beat Barry Hawkins 9–8 in the last 16, before losing to eventual champion Ronnie O'Sullivan in the quarter-finals. Cope made his
World Championship debut in 2008, losing 10–9 to
Peter Ebdon in the first round. At the 2008 Shanghai Masters, Cope scored the second competitive 147 of his career against
Mark Williams, but lost their last-16 match 2–5. In the 2009 World Championship, Cope beat Joe Perry in the first round 10–6 and was close to upsetting twice world champion John Higgins in the second round. He was 12–10 up and was looking good to win the match, but ultimately Higgins surged back to win 13–12. This meant that he finished the season ranked at No. 18, still unable to break into the elite top 16. In the
2009–10 season he never progressed beyond the second round of a ranking tournament. Although he qualified for the
World Championship, he lost 10–4 in the first round to
Ali Carter. On top of this, an unexpected run to the final by Graeme Dott meant that Dott overtook Cope in the rankings and left Cope outside the world's top 16 for another season, albeit at a career high ranking of 17th.
2010/2011 season In the
2010/2011 season, the two-year ranking system was replaced with a rolling ranking, meaning that Cope was finally able to reach the top 16 in October 2010. Cope made his debut at the
Masters, where he reached the semi-final stage with wins over
Shaun Murphy and
Mark King. He played
Ding Junhui in the semi-final, but lost 3–6. He was knocked out of the
World Championship in the last 16 following a 4–13 loss to Mark Williams, but despite this he finished the season ranked 15.
2011/2012 season Cope began the
2011–12 season with a first round loss in the
Australian Goldfields Open and a second round defeat in the
Shanghai Masters, resulting in him losing his place in the top 16 after the first rankings cut-off in October, as he was placed number 18. Therefore, Cope was now required to win a qualifying match to reach the main draw of the ranking events. He failed to do this in the next three tournaments, losing to
Joe Jogia,
Yu Delu and
Ken Doherty, in attempting to qualify for the
UK Championship,
German Masters and
Welsh Open respectively.
2012/2013 season Cope's best finishes of the
2012–13 season were last 16 defeats in the first three ranking events of the year, which did include a 5–1 victory over world number one
Mark Selby in the first round of the
Shanghai Masters. In the rest of the season Cope struggled for form as he lost his qualifying match in the next three ranking events, and although he qualified for the
World Open and the
China Open, he lost 2–5 in the first round to Graeme Dott in the former and 2–5 in the wildcard round to Zhao Xintong in the latter. His season ended when he lost 3–10 to world number 70
Dechawat Poomjaeng in the final round of
World Championship Qualifying. His drop down the rankings continued as he ended the year ranked world number 38, outside of the top 32 for the first time since 2006.
2013/2014 season Cope lost 5–2 in the first round against
Joe Perry as he started his
2013–14 season at the
Wuxi Classic. He then beat
Martin Gould 5–4 at the
Australian Goldfields Open, before home favourite Neil Robertson eliminated him 5–3 in the second round. In the next four ranking events he lost in the first round of the
UK Championship to
David Morris and failed to qualify for the others. His draw in the following matches was not kind as lost 5–1 to
Ding Junhui in the next round, a player who had already won four ranking events this season, and 5–1 to
Shaun Murphy in China, who had won the
World Open two weeks earlier. In the first round he led Murphy 7–5, but the match went into a deciding frame with Cope losing it on the colours. Cope said later that he was unable to control his arm in the second session of the match which had caused him to jab at the cue ball.
2014/2015 season Cope qualified for the
Wuxi Classic for the third year in a row, but was beaten 5–3 by
Michael White in the first round. He lost 6–4 to
John Higgins in the second round of the
UK Championship and was edged out 4–3 by Neil Robertson in the third round of the
Welsh Open. Cope's second last 32 appearance in a ranking event this season was at the
Indian Open after defeating
Fraser Patrick, but he lost 4–2 to Higgins. This result meant that Cope fell out of the top 64 of the season-end world rankings; however, he saved his tour place thanks to his 44th position on the
European Order of Merit which earned him a fresh two-year tour card.
2015/2016 season Cope won four matches to qualify for the
2015 Shanghai Masters and then progressed through a wildcard match once in China. In the first round of the event, Cope secured his best win in a number of years by holding on from 3–0 ahead of world number four Neil Robertson to edge it 5–4. He was 3–0 behind Mark Williams in the second round and could not recover as he was defeated 5–3. He also qualified for the
International Championship, but lost 6–4 to
Kyren Wilson in the opening round. Cope came from 4–1 down to
Rory McLeod in the first round of the
UK Championship to win 6–5, but was whitewashed 6–0 by
Stephen Maguire in the second round. He also failed to win a frame in the opening round of the
Welsh Open as
Ben Woollaston saw him off 4–0. He ended the season at world number 76, outside the top 64 in the world rankings, and played in the
2017 Q School. Cope was eliminated in the fifth round of event one and the second round of event two, and was consequently relegated from the professional snooker tour.
2017/18 He entered the
2018 Q School in a bid to win back his place on the snooker professional tour. In the second event he reached the final stage, but was beaten 4–1 by
Jordan Brown.
2019/20 He announced his retirement from snooker on 25 May. ==Performance and rankings timeline==