Luca Brecel

He finished 69th on the Order of Merit.

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.

Luca Brecel (born 8 March 1995) is a Belgian professional snooker player.

A four-time ranking event winner, Brecel is the reigning World Snooker Champion, having won the 2023 event by defeating four-time champion Mark Selby 18–15 in the final.

Brecel trailed Si Jiahui 5–14 in the semi-final, but eventually won 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.

Luca Brecel was born on 8 March 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 took up snooker when he was nine, after playing 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 was removed from school so that he could be home tutored and spend more time practicing the game.

He scored his first competitive century break at 12.

In the Grand Final of the World Series of Snooker in Portugal in May, Brecel beat six-time World Championship runner-up Jimmy White by 4–3 and 1997 world champion Ken Doherty by 5–3.

He lost 4–5 to 2006 world champion Graeme Dott in the quarter-finals.

Brecel won the 2009 European Under-19 title at the age of 14, and turned professional in 2011.

In April 2009, he 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 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 had a 4–1 victory against seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry in an exhibition game in Bruges.

In May of that year, Brecel beat professional compatriot Bjorn Haneveer by 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.

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.

He is the youngest player to compete in the World Snooker Championship, making his debut in 2012, aged 17 years and 45 days, and the first player from mainland Europe to have won the event.

In January 2012, Brecel made his first and only maximum break in an amateur tournament.

Brecel played in all 12 of the minor-ranking Players Tour Championship events throughout the season, with his best finishes coming in Event 2, Event 8 and Event 9, where he reached the last 32 each time.

Brecel became the youngest ever player to qualify for the World Snooker Championship at the 2012 event.

Aged 17 years and 45 days, he defeated Ian McCulloch, Barry Pinches, Michael Holt and Mark King to qualify.

He became 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 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.