Career

Perry's breakthrough came when he reached the final of the European Open in 2001. He first reached the quarter-finals of the World Championship in 2004, beating then defending champion Mark Williams 13–11 along the way, also making the tournament's highest break of 145 (which remains Perry's best in competition), before losing to Matthew Stevens. He repeated this run in 2008 when he defeated Graeme Dott and Stuart Bingham, and bettered it by going on to beat Stephen Maguire 13–12 and earn his place in the semi-finals, which he narrowly lost to Ali Carter.Previously, he had also reached the last 16 on his Crucible debut in 1999, beating Steve Davis on the final black in the last 32.

In the 2007/08 season, he reached two quarter-finals: in the Grand Prix (losing 5–3 to Gerard Greene) and the Welsh Open (with victories over John Parrott 5–2, Peter Ebdon 5–1 and Stuart Bingham 5–2 before Shaun Murphy beat him 5–0), as well as the last 16 of the UK Championship, where he beat Neil Robertson 9–6 after being 5–3 down, before losing 9–2 to Marco Fu. He followed that up by reaching the semi-finals of the world championship, where he was knocked out by Ali Carter 17–15. These results ensured him a return to the prestigious top 16 of the rankings (at No. 12, his highest ranking ever), meaning automatic qualification for major tournaments. He also finished the 2007/2008 season on another high, by winning the Championship League, to qualify for the Betfred Premier League for 2008. He has said he feels that he is learning to cope with the high pressure of major tournaments, having had more experience over the last season.

In June 2013, Perry won the first tournament carrying ranking points of his 22-year professional career at the Players Tour Championship event, the Yixing Open, with a 4–1 defeat of Mark Selby in the final.A week later he outplayed Ding Junhui in the second round of the Wuxi Classic to win 5–1 and then beat David Gilbert 5–2 in the following round, before being defeated 5–2 by John Higgins in the quarter-finals.Another quarter-final followed at the Australian Goldfields Open where he was eliminated 5–2 by home favourite Neil Robertson.

Perry won a quarter-final at the third time of asking this season at the International Championship with a 6–1 victory over Ryan Day.His semi-final match against Marco Fu was extremely close and laden down with long spells of tactical play as many frames lasted 40 minutes, which Fu edged 9–8 on the colours.He also participated in the 2013 World Games in Cali, Colombia, where he represented the UK. He won his first game against Brendan O'Donoghue but subsequently lost in the quarter finals to eventual gold medalist Aditya Mehta.