By Elliott West
“It’s very tough but I said if you want to talk back stronger then you have to keep going”.
Luca Brecel
Introduction
Luca Brecel is one of the biggest snooker exports from Belgium in recent years. Now 26 years old, the player from Dilsen-Stokkem and nicknamed ‘The Belgian Bullet’, became the youngest European Under-19 champion at the tender age of 14 and beat many of the big guns of snooker in his early years including Ken Doherty, Jimmy White and Stephen Hendry. A formidable start to a snooker career, topped off with becoming the Belgian senior champion in 2010, defeating Bjorn Haneveer 7-4 in the final and the highest break of the tournament of 136. He was also awarded the Belgian Sportsman of the year in 2010.
What Happened?
Since turning professional in 2011, Luca has managed to get to the final of the 2016 German Masters, losing to Martin Gould 5-9, has won the 2017 China Championship, beating Shaun Murphy 10-5 and most recently the 2020 Championship League. However, after such a promising starting and pundits heaping him with praise, the trail suddenly went cold and we saw less and less of this sensation.
The main reason for this was a shoulder injury that Luca incurred in 2018 which left him with poor results, cue problems, even to the point of walking out with two cues in one match and ultimately a period of having to battle depression and hyperventilation. The fact was that Brecel was still winning but couldn’t do what he strived to do, going deep into tournaments.
The Winning Formula
However, despite this blip in his career, Luca now seems to found the winning formula once more, having won his last ten matches of the season, topped off with having just beaten the current Northern Ireland Open champion Mark Allen 4-1 in the English Open. To do this, Brecel has had to start practicing hard, cutting out social media and travelling from Belgium via car to the various UK events. It doesn’t matter where he plays, he zones out from the audience noise and just plays with one aim, to win, clinical but effective, a winning mindset.
The Belgian has also been playing in Judd Trump-style shoes, complete with sparkly studs, a change of footwear brought on by Brecel claiming that his dog, Flokki, ate his previous pair. Whatever the real reason for the footwear change, it works and despite all the ups and downs, Luca has never lost that glint in his eye. Take this young man to anywhere in the world and set him up with a snooker table and he just starts smiling like a Cheshire Cat because he just loves snooker! The future remains bright for this player and watch out for him in the English Open and future tournaments because I agree with David Hendon, this is the player to look out for this season.
