Lukas Kleckers

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Lukas Kleckers
Lukas Kleckers
birthday 18th May 1996 (age 24)
nationality GermanyGermany Germany
Nickname (s) The cat
professional 2017–2019, since 2020
Prize money £ 28,750
Highest break 137 ( Northern Ireland Open 2017 )
Century Breaks 5
Main tour successes
World championships -
Ranking tournament victories -
Minor tournament victories -
World rankings
Highest WRL place 95 ( July-August 2018 )
Best results
Ranked tournaments Last 32 (5 ×)
Other professional tournaments Last 32 ( 6-Red World Championship 2016 )

Lukas Kleckers (born May 18, 1996 ) is a German snooker player from Essen . He became German champion in 2013 and 2019 and played as a professional on the Snooker Main Tour from 2017 to 2019 .

Career

2006–2014: youth and first successes

Kleckers began playing snooker at the age of ten after becoming aware of the sport through television broadcasts. In 2008 he reached the round of 16 at a German Grand Prix tournament . In spring 2010 he became German U16 junior champion. In the same year he qualified for the first time for the German men's championship , in which, however, he was eliminated in the preliminary round. In April 2011 he was eliminated from the preliminary round when he participated in the European Junior Championship for the first time. At the German youth championship in 2011, he won the bronze medal among the U16 juniors. After getting past the last 16 at the beginning of 2011 at the German Grand Prix for the first time, he moved into the finals at the final tournament of the tournament series, in which he had to admit defeat to New Zealander Chris Mcbreen 2: 3. At the German championship in 2011 he reached the quarter-finals and lost 3-0 to Roman Dietzel . At the U21 European Championship in 2012 he reached the round of 32. A little later he became German champion in the U16 and U21 age groups.

In the 2012/13 season Kleckers first took part in a tournament of the Players Tour Championship ; However, at the Antwerp Open 2012 he lost 4-0 to the Englishman Oliver Lines in the first qualifying round . At the U21 European Championship in 2013 he reached the quarter-finals and was eliminated 3: 4 against Duane Jones . A few days later, in April 2013, he defended his title in the German youth championship among the U21 juniors and won his first title among the U19 juniors. At the end of the month he won a Grand Prix tournament for the first time in Munich with a 4-2 final victory over his club mate Roman Dietzel.

In the 2013/14 season , Kleckers took part in the two PTC tournaments held in Germany. After he was eliminated in the Paul Hunter Classic 2013 in the fourth qualifying round against David Singh , he lost in the Ruhr Open in the second qualifying round against Ian Glover . In October 2013 he became German men's champion with a 4-2 win in the final against Roman Dietzel . A month later he took part in the Amateur World Championship for the first time and reached the round of 64. After winning two Grand Prix tournaments at the beginning of the year, he reached the quarter-finals again at the 2014 U21 European Championship . Shortly afterwards he became German U21 champion and runner-up in the U19 juniors for the third time in a row. In summer 2014 he reached the quarter-finals of the U21 World Cup and the round of 64 at the Men's European Championship .

2014–2017: International success as an amateur

In the following season Kleckers appeared in four of the six European PTC tournaments. After an opening defeat at the Paul Hunter Classic 2014 , he narrowly missed the final round of the Bulgarian Open 2014 when he lost 4: 3 to Michael Williams in the third and final qualifying round . In November, he was the only European not from England to reach the round of 16 at the Amateur World Cup in India . Since the World Cup took place at the same time as the German championship, he could not defend his title there. In December, Kleckers qualified for the first time for the main round of a PTC tournament at the Lisbon Open 2014 . After defeating Adam Duffy in qualifying , he was eliminated in the first main round with 1: 4 against John Higgins . At the Gdynia Open 2015 he also made it into the last 128 and lost 4-0 to Mark Davis . A month later, he made it to the semi-finals of the U21 European Championship . After defeating Rhys Clark , among others , he was eliminated there 4-5 against the eventual European champion Darryl Hill from the Isle of Man .

In the spring of 2015, the World Snooker Federation made places available for qualifying for the World Championship , which the organizers of the European PTC tournaments were able to give to young players from their countries. This also gave Kleckers the chance to take part in the qualifying tournament held in April. There he was defeated in the first round by the Thai Noppon Saengkham 6:10 after he had led 5: 4 after the first session. In May 2015, he first took part in the Q School , a qualifying tournament for the Snooker Main Tour . However, he did not get there beyond the third round and thus missed the qualification for the professional tournament series. A month later Kleckers reached the semi-finals of the European Championship and was eliminated against Michael Wild from England . At the 2015 World Cup , he and Felix Frede formed the German team that was eliminated in the preliminary round. In July 2015 he was eliminated from the U21 World Cup in the round of 64. A few days later he succeeded for the first time to win a main round game of a PTC tournament: He defeated Anthony Hamilton in the first round of the Riga Open 4-0, but then lost to Stephen Maguire from Scotland . In the five other European PTC tournaments of the 2015/16 season , however, he was eliminated in the preliminary round. In November 2015, Kleckers was the first German to reach the semi-finals of the amateur world championship and lost it 5-7 against eventual world champion Pankaj Advani .

In February 2016, Kleckers reached the quarter-finals of the U21 European Championship . At the subsequent men's European championship , however, he was eliminated in the round of 64 against the eventual European champion Jak Jones . In March 2016 he won a German Grand Prix for the fifth time in the final against Andreas Ploner . As the best German player in the EBSA Order of Merit , he was invited again to qualify for the World Cup in 2016 . There he met the Englishman Rory McLeod in the first round , but after a 3-1 lead he lost 7:10. At the Q School in 2016, he again did not get past the third round. Shortly thereafter, he moved into the final of the 6-Red European Championship and was only slightly defeated by Poland's Mateusz Baranowski 3: 4. In August 2016 he became the first German to make it into the semi-finals of the U21 World Cup , in which he had to admit defeat to eventual tournament winner Xu Si after a 2-0 lead with 2: 5.

After he had to cancel his participation in the Paul Hunter Classic 2016 due to the U21 World Cup semi-finals taking place at the same time, Kleckers only took part in one Main Tour tournament in the 2016/17 season: along with a few other amateurs, he was the only German to finish 6 -Red World Championship 2016 in Bangkok . By winning the preliminary round against Rod Lawler and Mohammed Shehab , he moved into the round of 32, in which he lost 6-0 to Pankaj Advani. At the amateur World Cup in 2016 , Kleckers lost 4-5 in the round of 16 against eventual world champion Soheil Vahedi . At the U21 European Championship 2017 , he was eliminated in the round of 32.

2017/18: First season as a professional

Lukas Kleckers 2017

In May 2017, Kleckers took part in the Q School for the third time to qualify for the Snooker Main Tour . In the very first tournament he managed to march through to the final. There he defeated the ex-professional Martin O'Donnell 4-1 and thus secured the professional status for the two following seasons. After Lasse Münstermann and Patrick Einsle , he is the third German to qualify for the Main Tour.

Kleckers started his first professional season with an opening defeat against Ben Woollaston in qualifying for the China Championship . Previously, he had reached the final round of the Riga Masters because his qualifying opponent did not take part. At the main tournament in the Latvian capital, he defeated the defending champion Neil Robertson after a 2: 3 deficit 4: 3 before he was eliminated in the round of 32 with 2: 4 against Jack Lisowski . The game against Robertson was his only win in a ranking tournament that season.

At the Indian Open he lost his qualifying game 2: 4 against Gary Wilson , at the World Open 3: 5 against Xiao Guodong . Also at the European Masters 2017 lost in the qualifying round, this time 3: 4 against Ryan Day. In the first round of the English Open 2017 , Kleckers lost 4-1 to the later quarter-finalist Michael White . Kleckers was also unsuccessful at the International Championship ; he lost in qualification with 2: 6 against Jack Lisowski . With a 5-1 defeat against Stuart Bingham , he also lost his qualifier for the 2017 Shanghai Masters . At the Northern Ireland Open 2017 , he lost 4-2 to Ronnie O'Sullivan in the first round , with a 137 break in the third frame - the highest break of his career to date. This was followed by first round defeats against Mark Allen (2: 6) at the UK Championship , against Joe Swail (0: 4) at the Scottish Open 2017 and against Tom Ford (2: 5) at the German Masters 2018 .

At the beginning of January 2018, Kleckers won the amateur tournament 3 Kings Open in Rankweil with a 5-1 final victory against the Austrian Andreas Ploner . On the main tour he then suffered first round defeats against Gary Wilson ( Snooker Shoot-Out ), Nigel Bond ( Welsh Open ), Fang Xiongman ( Gibraltar Open ) and Chris Wakelin ( China Open ). In qualifying for the 2018 World Cup , he met Akani Songsermsawad . Against the Thai, Kleckers quickly fell 0: 5 behind. In the meantime he shortened to 2: 5 and 3: 7, but finally Akani clearly prevailed with 4:10. In the world rankings , Kleckers ended the season in 129th place.

2018/19: Second professional season

Right at the beginning of the 2018/19 season , Kleckers was able to defeat the Swiss Alexander Ursenbacher in qualifying for the Riga Masters 2018 and thus qualified for the main round, where he initially defeated Robbie Williams 4: 3, but then in the round of 32 against Mark King was beaten 4 by 2. Due to the good performance, he then achieved his best position so far in the world rankings with rank 95. In qualifying for the World Open , he had to admit defeat to reigning world champion Mark Williams just 4: 5. At the Paul Hunter Classic in Fürth , Kleckers defeated multiple world champion Ng On Yee 4-1, before he was able to make up a 3-0 deficit against Rod Lawler in the second round , but finally lost the decisive frame on the last black ball. At the English Open 2018 he reached the round of 64 with a 4-1 win against John Astley , in which he lost 4-0 to Englishman Ricky Walden . Then Kleckers suffered a first round defeat four times in a row. In qualifying for the German Masters 2019 , he initially prevailed 5-2 against Hammad Miah , but in the second qualifying round he lost 5-0 to Judd Trump .

In February 2019, Kleckers achieved his best result to date in a full ranking tournament at the Welsh Open . With wins against Peter Ebdon (4: 0) and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (4: 3) he reached the round of 32, in which he took the lead against Hossein Vafaei 1: 0 and 2: 1. In the end, however, he had to admit defeat to the Iranian 2: 4. A few days later he came back to the sixteenth finals in the snooker shoot-out . This time he had defeated Jamie O'Neill and former world champion Ken Doherty before losing to the Chinese Li Hang in the third round . Then Kleckers remained without a win until the end of the season. In qualifying for the 2019 World Cup, he lost to the Chinese Yan Bingtao (3:10) in the first round . Kleckers finished the season on the 111th place in the  world ranking and thus lost his professional status on the Main Tour.

2019/20: Again qualification for the Main Tour

After losing his professional status, Kleckers tried to get back on the Main Tour via the Q School in May 2019 . In the first tournament he made it to the final of his group, but lost the decisive game to Jamie O'Neill . In the two following tournaments ( 2 , 3 ) he was eliminated early and thus missed the direct return to the professional tour. As tenth place in the Q-School rankings, however, Kleckers was able to take part in some professional tournaments in the 2019/20 season.

Right at the beginning of the season he reached the round of 32 at the Riga Masters by beating Riley Parsons and Zhang Anda , in which he was defeated by the Chinese Mei Xiwen . At the European Masters 2020 , he defeated Xu Si before knocking out Xiao Guodong in the second qualifying round. Then he had to accept defeats at the German Masters and the Snooker Shoot-Out .

At the amateur level, Kleckers won the German championship in Six-Red-Snooker in 2019 with a 4-0 final win against Sascha Breuer and a tournament of the German Grand Prix in the final against the French Brian Ochoiski (3-1). In November 2019 he became German champion for the second time after 2013 with a 4-0 victory in the final against Robin Otto .

In January 2020, Kleckers won the eighth tournament of the Challenge Tour 2019/20 with a 3-1 final victory over Welsh Tyler Rees . In addition, he reached the quarter-finals four times and the semi-finals three times in the ten tournaments of the amateur series, and at the end of the season he finished second in the series ranking, which means he qualified for the Main Tour seasons 2020/21 and 2021/22 .

In July 2020 he was one of 34 amateurs eligible to play in the qualification for the professional world championship and reached the second qualifying round due to the illness-related cancellation of Sydney Wilson , in which he was defeated 2: 6 to the Thai Akani Songsermsawad .

Team career

From 2009 Kleckers played in 147 food SC , with whom he 2010 in the 2. Bundesliga and in 2011 in the first Bundesliga rise. In 2013 and 2015 he was runner-up with Essen, and German champion in 2016 . In the summer of 2016 he moved to the newly promoted Bundesliga 1. SC Mayen-Koblenz , with whom he was runner- up in his first season . In May 2017, the German Billard Union announced that Kleckers would no longer be eligible to play in the Bundesliga from the 2017/18 season due to his qualification for the Main Tour . But his report was finally accepted. Kleckers then became German champions in 2018 and 2019 with Koblenz and runner-up in 2020 .

successes

Others

Kleckers finances his career through crowdfunding, among other things . He started the first crowdfunding campaign in summer 2014 for a training session at the Snooker Academy in Sheffield .

Kleckers studies mechanical engineering in Bochum and plays table tennis at TV Essen-Kupferdreh .

Web links

Commons : Lukas Kleckers  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

  1. ↑ Kleckers has made the leap to the snooker professionals. In: www.german-snooker-tour.de. German Snooker Tour, 2017, accessed on June 8, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b c Profile of Lukas Kleckers on CueTracker (as of July 25, 2020)
  3. ↑ a b c Dietmar Mauer: The Preventer - Lukas Kleckers (17) starts at the World Snooker Championship. In: derwesten.de. Funke Mediengruppe , July 8, 2013, accessed October 3, 2014 .
  4. ^ Prize Money Won By Lukas Kleckers In Season 2007–2008. In: cuetracker.net. Ron Florax, accessed May 15, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Prize Money Won By Lukas Kleckers In Season 2010–2011. In: cuetracker.net. Ron Florax, accessed May 15, 2017 .
  6. ^ Prize Money Won By Lukas Kleckers In Season 2011–2012. In: cuetracker.net. Ron Florax, accessed May 15, 2017 .
  7. ↑ a b Prize Money Won By Lukas Kleckers In Season 2012-2013. In: cuetracker.net. Ron Florax, accessed May 15, 2017 .
  8. ↑ Imke Köhler: Interview with young snooker hope Lukas Kleckers. (No longer available online.) In: touch-magazine.net. touch magazine, September 4, 2013, archived from the original on October 6, 2014 ; Retrieved October 3, 2014 .
  9. ↑ a b Prize Money Won By Lukas Kleckers In Season 2013-2014. In: cuetracker.net. Ron Florax, accessed May 15, 2017 .
  10. ↑ Dietmar Mauer: Lukas Kleckers is a German snooker master. In: derwesten.de. Funke Mediengruppe , October 28, 2013, accessed October 3, 2014 .
  11. ↑ Christopher Hemscheidt: Snooker - Kleckers: "Nobody does it like Ronnie". (No longer available online.) In: eurosport.yahoo.com. Eurosport , April 16, 2014, archived from the original on October 6, 2014 ; Retrieved October 3, 2014 .
  12. ↑ Prize Money Won By Lukas Kleckers In Season 2014–2015. In: cuetracker.net. Ron Florax, accessed May 15, 2017 .
  13. ↑ IBSF Snooker Championships Men - Bangalore / India 2014. Results of the main round. In: esnooker.pl. Dariusz Goral, accessed December 4, 2013 .
  14. ^ Rolf Kalb : Snooker - Kleckers is in the EM semifinals. (No longer available online.) In: eurosport.yahoo.com. Eurosport , March 25, 2015, archived from the original on July 23, 2015 ; accessed on March 26, 2015 .
  15. ↑ Rolf Kalb : Snooker - Close semi-final defeat for Kleckers. (No longer available online.) In: eurosport.yahoo.com. Eurosport , March 26, 2015, archived from the original on July 22, 2015 ; accessed on March 26, 2015 .
  16. ↑ Thomas Hein : WM-Sheffield: Kleckers with of the party. (No longer available online.) In: snookermania.de. March 31, 2015, archived from the original on April 3, 2015 ; accessed on March 31, 2015 .
  17. ↑ a b c Prize Money Won By Lukas Kleckers In Season 2015-2016. In: cuetracker.net. Ron Florax, accessed May 15, 2017 .
  18. ↑ Rolf Kalb : Lukas Kleckers sells skin dearly in Riga and celebrates 4-0 against Anthony Hamilton. In: eurosport.de. Eurosport , July 31, 2015, accessed July 31, 2015 .
  19. ↑ Vivek Pathak: Pankaj crowned with World Snooker title. In: ibsf.info. International Billiards & Snooker Federation , November 21, 2015, accessed November 25, 2015 .
  20. ↑ Thomas Hein : IBSF WM Amateurs: Good job Mr. Kleckers. (No longer available online.) In: snookermania.de. November 21, 2015, archived from the original on November 26, 2015 ; Retrieved November 25, 2015 .
  21. ↑ Bronze for Germany. In: portal.billardarea.de. German Billard Union , November 21, 2015, accessed on November 25, 2015 .
  22. ↑ WPBSA Finalises World Championship Invitations. In: worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association , April 1, 2016, accessed April 9, 2016 .
  23. ↑ Rolf Kalb : World Cup qualification: Lukas Kleckers is defeated after a hard fight. In: eurosport.de. Eurosport , April 9, 2016, accessed April 9, 2016 .
  24. ↑ a b Prize Money Won By Lukas Kleckers In Season 2016–2017. In: cuetracker.net. Ron Florax, accessed May 15, 2017 .
  25. ↑ 2016 European 6-Reds Championship. In: cuetracker.net. Ron Florax, accessed August 26, 2016 .
  26. ↑ Rolf Kalb : U21 World Cup: Chinese Xu Si triumphs and secures a place on the main tour. In: eurosport.de. Eurosport , August 25, 2016, accessed August 26, 2016 .
  27. ↑ Missed the World Cup final. In: portal.billardarea.de. Deutsche Billard-Union, August 25, 2016, accessed on August 29, 2016 .
  28. ^ Kleckers Books Tour Spot. In: worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association , May 14, 2017, accessed May 15, 2017 .
  29. ↑ a b c Thomas Hein : Q-School: Wahnsinn! lukas Kleckers is on the main tour. In: portal.billardarea.de. Deutsche Billard-Union , May 14, 2017, accessed on May 15, 2017 .
  30. ↑ Rolf Kalb : Great success: Lukas Kleckers gets the Maintour ticket. In: eurosport.de. Eurosport , May 14, 2017, accessed May 15, 2017 .
  31. ↑ a b c d Prize Money Won By Lukas Kleckers In Season 2017–2018. In: cuetracker.net. Ron Florax, accessed May 15, 2017 .
  32. ↑ a b Prize Money Won By Lukas Kleckers In Season 2018-2019. In: cuetracker.net. Ron Florax, accessed April 19, 2018 .
  33. ↑ a b Prize Money Won By Lukas Kleckers In Season 2019-2020. In: cuetracker.net. Ron Florax, accessed July 23, 2020 .
  34. ^ Q School Order of Merit (2018/19). In: snooker.org. Retrieved July 23, 2020 .
  35. ↑ Kleckers Regains Tour Place. In: wst.tv. World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association , March 3, 2020, accessed March 15, 2020 .
  36. ↑ Oberliga A 2009/10. In: bvnr.billardarea.de. Lower Rhine Billiard Association, accessed on August 29, 2016 .
  37. ↑ 2. Bundesliga Snooker North 2010/11. In: portal.billardarea.de. German Billard Union, accessed on August 29, 2016 .
  38. ^ 1. Bundesliga Snooker 2011/12. In: portal.billardarea.de. German Billard Union, accessed on August 29, 2016 .
  39. ↑ 1st Bundesliga Snooker 2012/13. In: portal.billardarea.de. German Billard Union, accessed April 25, 2016 .
  40. ↑ 1st Bundesliga Snooker 2013/14. In: portal.billardarea.de. German Billard Union, accessed April 25, 2016 .
  41. ^ 1. Bundesliga Snooker 2014/15. In: portal.billardarea.de. German Billard Union, accessed April 25, 2016 .
  42. ↑ 1st Bundesliga Snooker 2015/16. In: portal.billardarea.de. German Billard Union, accessed April 25, 2016 .
  43. ↑ 1st Bundesliga Snooker 2016/17. In: portal.billardarea.de. German Billard Union, accessed on May 15, 2017 .
  44. ↑ a b 1st Bundesliga Snooker 2017/18. In: portal.billardarea.de. German Billard Union, accessed on April 13, 2018 .
  45. ↑ 1st Bundesliga Snooker 2018/19. In: portal.billardarea.de. German Billard Union, accessed on October 25, 2019 .
  46. ↑ 1st Bundesliga Snooker 2019/20. In: portal.billardarea.de. German Billard Union, accessed on July 23, 2020 .
  47. ↑ Lukas Kleckers: Lukas Kleckers. In: monaco-funding.com. Monaco Funding, 2014, accessed March 31, 2015 .
  48. ↑ Carsten Eberts: Diamond is looking for money. In: sueddeutsche.de. Süddeutsche Zeitung , September 4, 2014, accessed on October 3, 2014 .
  49. ↑ Thomas Hein : Lukas Kleckers “The dream of a professional snooker” or “nothing going on without moss”. (No longer available online.) In: snookermania.de. August 11, 2014, archived from the original on October 6, 2014 ; Retrieved October 3, 2014 .
  50. ↑ My dream of becoming a professional snooker - with your help. In: billard-aktuell.de. Retrieved October 3, 2014 .
  51. ↑ Lukas Kleckers as a new bearer of hope. In: sport.de. April 25, 2017. Retrieved June 24, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Kleckers, Lukas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German snooker player
DATE OF BIRTH May 18, 1996