event he entered, but was unable to make a single quarter-final appearance. However, he did have a number of significant wins during the campaign. He reached the semi-finals of the minor-ranking Paul Hunter Classic by beating Judd Trump 4–1, but lost 4–2 to Ali Carter. Holt played Ronnie O'Sullivan in the opening round of the World Grand Prix and he made breaks of 88 and 119 in going 3–0 up. O'Sullivan responded to make it 3–3, before a 76 from Holt saw him advance to the second round, where he was knocked out 4–2 by Liang Wenbo. In the first round of the World Championship he scored his first win at the Crucible for 11 years by beating 2010 winner Neil Robertson 10–6. In the second round Holt lost 13–8 to Mark Williams, but hoped the defeat would be a turning point in his career and that next year he would arrive at the tournament as a ranking event winner. 2016–17 season Holt almost delivered on this statement straight away as he reached the final of the Riga Masters, the first ranking event of the 2016–17 season. He got past reigning world champion Mark Selby 4–1 and then beat Ian Burns and Stuart Bingham both 4–3 and Anthony McGill 4–0. His semi-final with Mark Williams was decided on the final brown in a deciding frame. In his first ranking event final, he took a slender 2–1 lead over Neil Robertson, but was defeated 2–5. Holt beat Ronnie O'Sullivan for the second time in a row when he knocked him out 5–2 in the second round of the Shanghai Masters. He had a chance to force a deciding frame in the quarter-finals against Ding Junhui but a missed black off the spot saw him lose 3–5. Another win over O'Sullivan came in the third round of the International Championship, before narrowly losing 5–6 to Stuart Bingham in the quarter-finals. Holt lost in the second round of the UK Championship, German Masters and China Open. He was one win away from qualifying for the World Championship when his tie with Peter Ebdon went to a final-frame decider. Holt went in-off on the final blue and Ebdon potted the final three balls to win 10–9. 2019–20 season In February 2020, Holt won the Snooker Shoot Out for his first ranking tournament win. Personality Holt has said that he finds it difficult to re-focus