Introduction
Kacper Filipiak (born 19 November 1995 in Warsaw, Masovian) is a Polish professional snooker player. He turned professional in 2011 after winning the European Under-21 Championship, and became Poland's first player on snooker's professional Main Tour. He was the first Polish player to make a 147 in competitive competition, doing so in a PLS Top 16 match against Marcin Nitschke.
Career
Debut season
The 2011/2012 snooker season was Filipiak's first as a professional. At the age of 15 he became the youngest professional player.Filipiak performed impressively at the Snooker World Cup, beating the likes of John Higgins, Stephen Maguire and Marco Fu in the singles matches; this led to him being tipped as a future world champion by Ronnie O'Sullivan. However, his results in the ranking tournaments were disappointing: he entered five of the eight ranking events, but failed to win a single match, picking just four frames during the season. Filipiak also had a poor set of results in the PTC events throughout the season, as he played in 10 of the 12 tournaments but did not win a match. He finished the year ranked world number 86, out of the top 64 who retained their places for the 2012/2013 season. Filipiak entered Q School in a bid to win a place for the upcoming season and played in all three events without picking up a single victory and dropped off the main snooker tour.
Amateur years
Filipiak could only enter Players Tour Championship events the 2012/2013 season. He played in five, but could only qualify for the first round in three, losing his match once there in all of them. He entered Q School in 2014 but was unable to win enough matches to earn a main tour card. He played in three of the six European Tour events in the 2014/2015 season with his only win coming at the Gdynia Open, where he beat Gerard Greene 4–2, before falling 4–0 to Oliver Lines in the second round. He once again had an unsuccessful Q School. Filipiak lost in the quarter-finals of the 2015 IBSF World Under-21 Snooker Championship 6–5 to Josh Boileau. After beating Gerard Greene 4–3 at the Gdynia Open, Filipiak made his televised debut in the second round against Andrew Higginson and lost 4–3. He won the 2019 EBSA European Snooker Championship. He therefore gained a two-year professional tour card to return to the tour for the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 seasons.
Performance and rankings timeline
| Tournament | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2017/18 | 2019/20 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ranking | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ranking tournaments | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Riga Masters | Tournament Not Held | Minor-Rank. | A | 1R | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| International Championship | Not Held | A | A | A | A | A | LQ | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| China Championship | Tournament Not Held | A | LQ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| English Open | Tournament Not Held | A | 1R | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| World Open | A | A | A | Not Held | A | A | LQ | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Northern Ireland Open | Tournament Not Held | A | 2R | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| UK Championship | A | LQ | A | A | A | A | A | 1R | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Scottish Open | Not Held | MR | Not Held | A | 2R | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| European Masters | Tournament Not Held | A | LQ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| German Masters | A | LQ | A | A | A | A | A | LQ | |||||||||||||||||||||
| World Grand Prix | Tournament Not Held | NR | DNQ | DNQ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Welsh Open | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | 1R | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoot-Out | Non-Ranking Event | A | 1R | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Players Championship | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Gibraltar Open | Tournament Not Held | MR | A | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tour Championship | Tournament Not Held | DNQ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| World Championship | A | LQ | A | A | A | A | LQ | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Non-ranking tournaments | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Six-red World Championship | A | A | A | A | 1R | A | A | A | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Former ranking tournaments | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Australian Goldfields Open | NH | LQ | A | A | A | Not Held | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shanghai Masters | A | LQ | A | A | A | A | A | NR | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Paul Hunter Classic | Minor-Ranking Event | 1R | NR | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| China Open | A | LQ | A | A | A | 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: 7 (4 titles, 3 runner-up)
| Outcome | No. | Year | Championship | Opponent in the final | Score |
| Winner | 1. | 2011 | EBSA European Under-21 Snooker Championships | Michael Leslie | 6–3 |
| Winner | 2. | 2014 | Polish Amateur Championship | Michał Zieliński | 7–2 |
| Runner-up | 1. | 2016 | Polish Amateur Championship | Tomasz Skalski | 5–6 |
| Runner-up | 2. | 2017 | Polish Amateur Championship | Mateusz Baranowski | 5–6 |
| Runner-up | 3. | 2018 | Polish Amateur Championship | Mateusz Baranowski | 4–6 |
| Winner | 3. | 2019 | Polish Amateur Championship | Paweł Rogoza | 6–3 |
| Winner | 4. | 2019 | EBSA European Snooker Championship | David Lilley | 5–4 |