Luca Brecel (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈlukaː breːˈsɛl];[2] born 8 March 1995) is a Belgian professional snooker player.

[5] His father Carlo was a "hail hunter", following storms to work repairing the damage from them, and his mother Mirella was a homemaker.

[6][7] The family lived in Maasmechelen, where Brecel started receiving coaching from Danny Moermans, and later moved to a property where they installed a snooker table he could use.

[10] In January 2010, Brecel had a 4–1 victory against seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry in an exhibition game in Bruges.

[12] Brecel was one of eight players who participated in the new Power Snooker tournament at the indigO2 in October 2010, alongside then reigning world champion Neil Robertson, Ding Junhui, Mark Selby, Ali Carter, Shaun Murphy, Jimmy White, and Ronnie O'Sullivan.

[21] Although finishing the season outside the top 64 in the world rankings who automatically retain their places on the snooker tour, Brecel received a two-year wildcard, along with Tony Drago.

[25] At the first PTC event of 2012, Brecel defeated Graeme Dott and Ken Doherty on his way to the last 16, where he met Judd Trump, who beat him 4–1.

[29] He was eventually defeated 6–5 in the quarter-final by Shaun Murphy, having missed a pink which would have given him an opportunity to win on the final black in each of the last two frames.

[34] Brecel qualified for the next ranking event, the German Masters, by defeating James Wattana 5–3, but was eliminated by Joe Perry 2–5 in the opening round.

[33] His best result of the year came at the penultimate ranking event of the season, the China Open where he reached the second round thanks to the withdrawal of Mark Allen.

Brecel then beat Dominic Dale 5–1 in the last 16, but missed out on his second career quarter-final as he lost 2–5 against Graeme Dott.

[35] In the minor-ranking European Tour events played throughout the season, Brecel advanced to the quarter-finals of the Ruhr Open by defeating Stuart Bingham 4–1, but was then beaten by Robbie Williams in a deciding frame by 73 points to 72.

[43] A pair of quarter-final exits in the European Tour events saw Brecel finish 16th on the Order of Merit, to make his debut in the Grand Final, where he lost 0–4 to Judd Trump in the opening round.

[47] After beating Zhao Xintong 5–2 and Kurt Maflin 5–3 he reached his first quarter-final of the season soon afterwards at the German Masters, where he recovered from 2–4 down to defeat Mark Joyce 5–4, closing the match with a 102 break.

[48] Brecel then won a scrappy game 6–3 in the semi-finals against Kyren Wilson to become only the second European player from outside the UK and Ireland, after Tony Drago, to play in a ranking event final, and the first from Belgium.

[51] Brecel was beaten in the fourth round of the 2016 Welsh Open (snooker) 2–4 by Ding Junhui and, after losing in the first round of three successive ranking events and failing to qualify for the 2016 World Snooker Championship, he finished the year at 30th in the world, at the time the highest he finished a campaign.

At the UK Championship, Brecel whitewashed Aditya Mehta 6–0 and then overcame Sam Craigie 6–5, Yu Delu 6–1 and Stephen Maguire 6–3 to play Murphy in the quarter-finals of the event for the second time.

[58] A month later, at the World Open, Brecel confirmed his status as a top 16 player with a semi-final finish, winning three consecutive rounds in deciding frames, before losing to eventual winner Ding Junhui 6–4.

[64] At the 2019 World Snooker Championship, he lost 10–9 in the first round to Gary Wilson, with the deciding frame lasting a record 79 minutes.

[66] Brecel's best result in a ranking tournament in the 2019-20 snooker season was an appearance in the last 16 of the Welsh Open, in which he lost 4–3 to John Higgins.

[67] In June 2020, he won the non-ranking Championship League, beating Stuart Bingham in the final group and drawing against Ryan Day and Ben Woollaston.

On his way to the final, Brecel completed a whitewash of Stephen Maguire and beat Kyren Wilson 6–4 in the semi-final, with four centuries during the match.

[78] He did not have great success in the 2023-2024 season: his best ranking-tournament result being a quarter-final in the Welsh Open, and only twice otherwise did he reach the last 16 of a ranking tournament.