Luca Brecel

Luca Brecel (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈlukaː breːˈsɛl]; born 8 March 1995) is a Belgian professional snooker player. A four-time ranking event winner, Brecel is a former World Snooker Champion, having won the 2023 event by defeating four-time champion Mark Selby in the final. Brecel trailed Si Jiahui 5–14 in the semi-final, but recovered to win 17–15. This comeback from nine frames behind is the biggest deficit ever overturned in the history of the World Championship at the Crucible Theatre. He became the first player from mainland Europe to win the World Championship.

He was also the first player from mainland Europe to win a ranking event when he won the 2017 China Championship, and then went on to win other ranking events: the 2021 Scottish Open and 2022 Championship League. He is the youngest player to compete in the World Snooker Championship making his debut in 2012, aged 17 years and 45 days losing to Stephen Maguire in the first round.

Brecel won the 2009 European Under-19 title at the age of 14, and turned professional in 2011. He reached the top 16 in the world rankings in 2017, and reached his first Triple Crown final at the 2021 UK Championship, but lost 5–10 to Zhao Xintong. A week later, he defeated John Higgins 9–5 to win the 2021 Scottish Open.

Since winning his world title in 2023, Brecel's form has declined. Withdrawing from multiple events in the subsequent seasons citing physical health reasons and having reached only one ranking event semi-final, his world ranking fell to 43 by the end of 2025.

Early life and amateur career

Luca Brecel was born in 1995 in Dilsen-Stokkem, Belgium. His father Carlo was a "hail hunter", following storms to work repairing the damage from them, and his mother Mirella was a homemaker. Brecel began playing snooker when he was nine, having played pool with his father during a family holiday. The family lived in Maasmechelen, where Brecel started receiving coaching from Danny Moermans, and later moved to a property where they installed a snooker table he could use. He began being homeschooled, allowing him more time to practice snooker. He scored his first competitive century break at 12.

In April 2009, Brecel became the youngest European Under-19 champion, at 14 years of age, in a 6–5 victory against Michael Wasley in Saint Petersburg. The victory would have earned him a place on the professional snooker tour, except that the minimum age to join the tour was 16. In the Grand Final of the World Series of Snooker in Portugal in May, Brecel beat six-time World Championship runner-up Jimmy White 4–3 and 1997 world champion Ken Doherty 5–3. He lost 4–5 to 2006 world champion Graeme Dott in the quarter-finals. In August 2009, he beat Joe Perry, then world number 12, at the Paul Hunter Classic. Around this time, Brecel's family relocated to a larger home in Maasmechelen so they could fit a full-size practice table.

In January 2010, Brecel beat seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry 4–1 in an exhibition game in Bruges. In May of that year, Brecel beat professional compatriot Bjorn Haneveer 7–4 to become Belgian senior champion. His break of 136 was the highest of the tournament. Brecel was one of eight players who participated in the new Power Snooker tournament at the indigO2 in October 2010, alongside then reigning world champion Neil Robertson, Ding Junhui, Mark Selby, Ali Carter, Shaun Murphy, Jimmy White, and Ronnie O'Sullivan. Brecel was defeated by eventual winner O'Sullivan in the first round. In December 2010, Brecel was named Belgian Sportsman of the Year in the Promising Talent category.

Professional career

Early professional years (2011–2015)

In May 2011, Brecel received a wild card for the main tour of the professional 2011–12 season. Brecel turned professional in the following month, beating Anthony Hamilton in his first official professional match. By August, he was ranked number 87 on the snooker world rankings. In January 2012, Brecel made his first maximum break in an amateur tournament. Brecel played in all 12 of the minor-ranking Players Tour Championship finishing 69th on the Order of Merit.

Aged 17, Brecel became the youngest ever player to qualify for the World Snooker Championship at the 2012 event, after he defeated Ian McCulloch, Barry Pinches, Michael Holt and Mark King to qualify. In doing so he broke the record of Stephen Hendry from 1986, who was almost two months older than Brecel. This was his first ranking event main draw, but he lost 5–10 in the first round against Stephen Maguire.

Although finishing the season outside the top 64 in the world rankings who automatically retain their places on the snooker tour, Brecel received a two-year wildcard, along with Tony Drago. Barry Hearn, the chairman of World Snooker said the decision was made as it would be a "loss to the sport" if Brecel did not feature. Brecel was awarded the Rookie of the Year Award at the World Snooker Annual Award Ceremony.

In July 2012, Brecel made his second maximum break in an amateur tournament. In qualifying for the first ranking event of the season, the 2012 Wuxi Classic, Brecel reached the third qualifying round but lost 5–4 to Jamie Burnett making three century breaks.

At the first PTC event of 2012, Brecel defeated Graeme Dott and Ken Doherty on his way to the last 16, where he met Judd Trump, who beat him 4–1. He finished 51st on the PTC Order of Merit.

Brecel qualified for the 2012 UK Championship after coming through four rounds of qualifying. He beat Scott Donaldson 6–5, Peter Lines 6–4, Liu Chuang 6–3 and Peter Ebdon 6–1, making five century breaks in the process, to reach the main draw of a ranking event for the second time. He won his first match in a ranking event by beating Ricky Walden 6–5 in the first round. He followed this up with a 6–4 win over Mark King, despite trailing 0–3. He was eventually defeated 6–5 in the quarter-final by Shaun Murphy, having missed a pink which would have given him an opportunity to win on the final black in each of the last two frames.

Following this success, Brecel failed to win any other qualifying match for the rest of the season. He was beaten 6–10 by amateur Fraser Patrick in the first round of World Championship qualifying. He ended his second year as a professional ranked world number 72.

Brecel lost in the qualifying rounds for the first five ranking events of the 2013–14 season, but received automatic entry into the first round of the UK Championship as all 128 players on the tour were admitted. He began the event defeating Mike Dunn 6–4, but then lost 5–6 to Stephen Maguire, despite having held a 5–2 lead. Brecel qualified for the next ranking event, the German Masters, by defeating James Wattana 5–3, but was eliminated by Joe Perry 2–5 in the opening round. His best result of the year came at the penultimate ranking event of the season, the China Open where he reached the second round thanks to the withdrawal of Mark Allen. Brecel then beat Dominic Dale 5–1 in the last 16, but missed out on his second career quarter-final as he lost 2–5 against Graeme Dott. In the minor-ranking European Tour events played throughout the season, Brecel advanced to the quarter-finals of the Ruhr Open by defeating Stuart Bingham 4–1, but was then beaten by Robbie Williams in a deciding frame by 73 points to 72. He finished 39th on the European Order of Merit and inside the top 64 in the world ranking for the first time, at number 63.

The first ranking event Brecel qualified for in the 2014–15 season was the Australian Goldfields Open where he was defeated by Matthew Stevens 3–5 in the opening round. He was whitewashed 0–6 by Mark Allen in the second round of the 2014 UK Championship. At the 2015 Welsh Open he defeated world number 15 Robert Milkins 4–0 in the opening round, Tian Pengfei 4–1 and Oliver Brown 4–0. In the second match he made a break of 140, the highest in his professional career and ultimately the highest in the tournament. He went on to beat reigning world champion and world number one Mark Selby in the fourth round after a deciding frame, 4–3, to reach the quarter-finals. There, Brecel met Ricky Walden, ranked number 9 at the time. Brecel lost the first three frames, but won the next five, to reach the first ranking semi-final of his professional career. In the semi-final, he lost to John Higgins 4–6. A pair of quarter-final exits in the European Tour events saw Brecel finish 16th on the Order of Merit, to make his debut in the Grand Final, where he lost 0–4 to Judd Trump in the opening round. Brecel moved up 19 places in the rankings to finish 44th in the world.