Turning Point
After suffering many losses, the 1988/89 season was to be a turning point for Mountjoy: while being coached by Frank Callan, he made it to the final of the 1988 UK Snooker Championship, meeting the young pretender Stephen Hendry in the final. He won 16–12, knocking in three consecutive centuries at one stage, giving him his first major ranking tournament victory, and after the match he praised Hendry as a future talent.
In January, he won the Classic, beating fellow Welshman Wayne Jones in the final, to win consecutive ranking titles. All in two months, that gave him his second ranking title during his twelve years as a professional. He then won his fifth Welsh Professional title the following month. He was back in the Top 16 the season later, and, by 1990, he was No. 5 in the world. He stayed in the Top 16 until 1993. That year, he made his final world championship appearance at the age of 50; for fifteen years he was the last player over 50 to appear in the final stages.
In 1993, not long after dropping out of the top 16, Mountjoy was diagnosed with lung cancer after being a smoker for many years, but later beat it and continued to play snooker until 1997. After 1997 he concentrated on snooker coaching but did compete in the world championships again in 2000 and 2002.
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