Introduction
Ben Mertens (born 13 October 2004) 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 (Wendy Jans is a multiple winner of the senior women's world championship).
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.
Performance and rankings timeline
| Tournament | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ranking | ||||||||
| Ranking tournaments | ||||||||
| Riga Masters | A | A | A | |||||
| International Championship | A | A | A | |||||
| China Championship | A | A | A | |||||
| English Open | A | A | ||||||
| World Open | A | A | ||||||
| Northern Ireland Open | A | A | ||||||
| UK Championship | A | A | ||||||
| Scottish Open | A | A | ||||||
| European Masters | A | A | ||||||
| German Masters | A | LQ | ||||||
| World Grand Prix | DNQ | DNQ | ||||||
| Welsh Open | A | A | ||||||
| Shoot-Out | A | 2R | ||||||
| Players Championship | DNQ | DNQ | ||||||
| Gibraltar Open | A | A | ||||||
| Tour Championship | NH | DNQ | ||||||
| China Open | A | A | ||||||
| World Championship | A | A | ||||||
| Non-ranking tournaments | ||||||||
| Paul Hunter Classic | Rank. Event | 1R | ||||||
| Former ranking tournaments | ||||||||
| Paul Hunter Classic | LQ | 2R | NR | |||||
| Indian Open | A | A | NH | |||||
| 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
Amateur finals: 1 (1 title)
| Outcome | No. | Year | Championship | Opponent in the final | Score |
| Winner | 1. | 2018 | World Open Under-16 Snooker Championships | Aaron Hill | 4–3 |