Ben Mertens


Ben Mertens is a Belgian snooker player. He won the World Open Under-16 Snooker Championships in 2018.

Career

Ben Mertens is from Wetteren. When he was 12 years old, he reached the 2nd round of the 2017 EBSA European Under-18 Snooker Championship. At the 2018 EBSA European Under-18 Snooker Championship he got to the quarter finals, where he lost from the later champion Jackson Page.
He won the Belgian U18 championship in 2018. In August 2018 he played in a professional ranking tournament for the first time, and beat Adam Stefanow in the first round of the 2018 Paul Hunter Classic.
In October 2018, when he was thirteen years old, he won the World Open Under-16 Snooker Championships, becoming the first male Belgian snooker world champion.
In January 2019, he defeated Michael White, then ranked #36 in the world, at a snooker tournament in Bruges.
At the 2019 Snooker Shoot-Out, a ranking tournament for which he got a wild card, he beat James Wattana in the first round.
In March 2020 he lost in the semi-finals of the EBSA European Under-21 Snooker Championships to later champion Aaron Hill.
In July 2020 he won the first round of the World Championship qualifiers, becoming the youngest player ever to have won a match in the World Championships.

Performance and rankings timeline

Career finals

Amateur finals: 1 (1 title)