Ben Mertens
Born | Wetteren,Belgium | 13 October 2004
---|---|
Sport country | ![]() |
Nickname | The Boy Wonder[1] |
Professional | 2022–present |
Highestranking | 70 (July 2023) |
Current ranking | 94 (as of 16 July 2024) |
Best ranking finish | Last 16 (2023 Welsh Open) |
Ben Mertens(born 13 October 2004) is aBelgianprofessionalsnookerplayer. He won theWorld Open Under-16 Snooker Championshipsin 2018.
Career
[edit]Ben Mertens is fromWetteren.When he was 12 years old, he reached the 2nd round of the 2017EBSA European Under-18 Snooker Championship.At the 2018 event he got to the quarter-finals, where he lost to the later championJackson Page.
He won the Belgian U18 championship in 2018.[2]In August 2018 he played in a professional ranking tournament for the first time, and beatAdam Stefanowin the first round of the2018 Paul Hunter Classic.[3]
In October 2018, when he was thirteen years old, he won theWorld Open Under-16 Snooker Championships,becoming the first male Belgian snooker world champion (Wendy Jansis a multiple winner of the senior women's world championship).[3]
In January 2019, he defeatedMichael White,then ranked #36 in the world, at a snooker tournament inBruges.[4]
At the2019 Snooker Shoot-Out,aranking tournamentfor which he got a wild card, he beatJames Wattanain the first round.[5]
In March 2020 he lost in the semi-finals of theEBSA European Under-21 Snooker Championshipsto later championAaron Hill.[6]
In July 2020 he defeatedJames Cahillin the first round of the World Championship qualifiers, becoming the youngest player ever to win a match in the World Championships. This record was broken byLiam Davies,who was two days younger than Mertens when he won his first match at the2022 World Snooker Championshipqualifiers.[7]
In June 2022 turned professional after winning theEBSA European Under-21 Snooker Championshipsand gained a two-year tour card for the2022–23and2023–24snooker seasons.[8]
Performance and rankings timeline
[edit]Tournament | 2017/ 18 |
2018/ 19 |
2019/ 20 |
2020/ 21 |
2021/ 22 |
2022/ 23 |
2023/ 24 |
2024/ 25 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ranking[9][nb 1] | [nb 2] | [nb 2] | [nb 2] | [nb 2] | [nb 2] | [nb 3] | 72 | [nb 4] | |||||
Ranking tournaments | |||||||||||||
Championship League | Non-Ranking Event | A | A | RR | RR | RR | |||||||
Xi'an Grand Prix | Tournament Not Held | ||||||||||||
Saudi Arabia Masters | Tournament Not Held | ||||||||||||
English Open | A | A | A | A | A | LQ | LQ | ||||||
British Open | Tournament Not Held | A | 1R | 1R | |||||||||
Wuhan Open | Tournament Not Held | 2R | |||||||||||
Northern Ireland Open | A | A | A | A | A | LQ | LQ | ||||||
International Championship | A | A | A | Tournament Not Held | LQ | ||||||||
UK Championship | A | A | A | A | A | LQ | LQ | ||||||
Shoot Out | A | 2R | A | 2R | A | 2R | 1R | ||||||
Scottish Open | A | A | A | A | A | LQ | 1R | ||||||
German Masters | A | LQ | A | A | A | LQ | 1R | ||||||
Welsh Open | A | A | A | A | A | 3R | 1R | ||||||
World Open | A | A | A | Tournament Not Held | LQ | ||||||||
World Grand Prix | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | ||||||
Players Championship | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | ||||||
Tour Championship | NH | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | ||||||
World Championship | A | A | LQ | LQ | LQ | LQ | LQ | ||||||
Former ranking tournaments | |||||||||||||
Paul Hunter Classic | LQ | 2R | NR | Tournament Not Held | |||||||||
WST Classic | Tournament Not Held | 2R | Not Held | ||||||||||
European Masters | A | A | A | 1R | A | LQ | 2R | NH | |||||
Former non-ranking tournaments | |||||||||||||
Paul Hunter Classic | Ranking | 1R | Tournament Not Held | ||||||||||
Six-red World Championship | A | A | A | Not Held | LQ | Not Held |
Performance Table Legend | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
LQ | lost in the qualifying draw | #R | lost in the early rounds of the tournament (WR = Wildcard round, RR = Round robin) |
QF | lost in the quarter-finals |
SF | lost in the semi-finals | F | lost in the final | W | won the tournament |
DNQ | did not qualify for the tournament | A | did not participate in the tournament | WD | withdrew from the tournament |
NH / Not Held | means an event was not held. | |||
NR / Non-Ranking Event | means an event is/was no longer a ranking event. | |||
R / Ranking Event | means an event is/was a ranking event. | |||
MR / Minor-Ranking Event | means an event is/was a minor-ranking event. |
Career finals
[edit]Amateur finals: 4 (3 titles)
[edit]Outcome | No. | Year | Championship | Opponent in the final | Score |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Winner | 1. | 2018 | World Open Under-16 Snooker Championships | ![]() |
4–3 |
Winner | 2. | 2021 | EBSA European Under-18 Snooker Championships | ![]() |
4–3 |
Winner | 3. | 2022 | EBSA European Under-21 Snooker Championships | ![]() |
5–1 |
Runner-up | 1. | 2022 | EBSA European Snooker Championships | ![]() |
3–5 |
References
[edit]- ^"Ben Mertens".World Snooker Tour.Archived fromthe originalon 30 September 2023.Retrieved11 May2023.
- ^"België heeft een wereldkampioen snooker: Ben Mertens (13) wint WK U16".Sporza.be.7 October 2018.Retrieved22 February2019.
- ^abLuysterborg, Peter (6 October 2018)."België heeft voor het eerst een wereldkampioen snooker: Ben Mertens, amper 13 (!), wint bloedstollende finale".Het Laatste Nieuws.Retrieved22 February2019.
- ^"Veertienjarig snookertalent Ben Mertens zet Michael White een hak op Pro-Am snooker".Het Nieuwsblad.Belga. 12 January 2019.Retrieved22 February2019.
- ^"Teenager Ben Mertens stuns James Wattana at Snooker Shoot Out in Watford".Sky Sports.22 February 2019.
- ^"European Snooker Championships U21 - Albufeira / Portugal 2020".EBSA.Retrieved18 June2020.
- ^"Davies, 15, sets World Championship record".BBC Sport.Retrieved2022-04-06.
- ^"Mertens set for Pro Tour".WST.12 June 2022. Archived fromthe originalon June 12, 2022.
- ^"Ranking History".Snooker.org.Retrieved6 February2011.
External links
[edit]- Official websiteat theWayback Machine(archived 13 August 2018)
- Ben Mertensat theWorld Snooker Tour
- Ben Mertensatsnooker.org