in the 2003 world snooker championship, he defeated allister carter 10–5, matthew stevens 13–6 and peter ebdon 13–12 to reach the semi-finals. in his best-of-33-frames semi-final, hunter established a 15–9 lead over ken doherty, however he only could win one of the next nine frames, and lost the match 16–17. the match was later shown as a "crucible classic" on the bbc during the original dates for the 2020 world snooker championship when the event was delayed. despite the loss, he earned a place in the world's top eight in the 2003-2004 world rankings for the first time in his career, having been ranked number nine for the previous two seasons.