Luca Brecel

Name: Luca Brecel

DOB: 8th March 1995

Nationality: Belgian

Turned Pro: 2011

Highest Ranking: #N/A

Highest Break: N/A

Career Highlights: 2010 EBSA European Champion, 2009 European U-19 Champion

Early Career

One of snooker’s hottest prospects, Belgium’s Luca Brecel first began to play the game at the age of nine and it was not long before the amateur titles began to come his way. Amongst other titles, at national level Luca won the U-16 Championship for three successive seasons between 2007-9 as well as adding the Belgian U-21 title during both 2008 and 2009 and the senior title in 2010.

It was however to be at the European U-19 Championship in 2009 where Luca would really announce himself as aged just 14 he defeated several players including Jack Lisowski and in the final Michael Wasley to become the youngest ever winner of the event.

Luca at the 2011 PTC2

He followed this up a year later by taking the full European Championship in Bucharest with a 7-4 victory against Holland’s Roy Stolk to become the youngster ever winner of that event and again demonstrate his talent.

Following both of these victories he would normally have been nominated for a place on the professional circuit but due to the age restrictions in place at the time he was not able to accept them. Upon turning 16 however he was handed a wildcard for the main tour for the 2011/12 season by the WPBSA.

With victories against the likes of Ken Doherty and Jimmy White in the World Series as well as an appearance at the Power Snooker event in 2010, it will be interesting to see how quickly Luca can adapt to life full-time on the main tour.

2011/12

Luca enjoyed a respectable start to his début season on the main tour with third round runs in three of the events staged during the Players Tour Championship but early exits in the season’s full-ranking events prevented him from climbing making significant progress up the rankings.

Luca at the 2011 UK Championship qualifiers

He came close to recording an impressive victory against Ian McCulloch during the UK Championship qualifiers having at one stage led 4-1, but Ian was eventually to come back and snatch the match 6-5 following a dramatic decider.