Brecel among the favourites in U-17 Open

A strong field of 10 players from six countries will take part in the second Invitational U-17 Open to be played at the Apple Snooker Club between Jan. 10 and 13.

The players were drawn in two groups.

Group A includes Luca Brecel (Belgium), Lior Pinhas (Israel), Maximilian Thurr (Austria), Wayne Pace (Malta) and Bairaq Sabih Salman (Sweden). The five players in Group B are Ryan Clark (England), Angelo Eyckmans (Belgium), Anders Czarnecki (Sweden), Shaun Sultana (Malta) and Alexander Gauss (Austria).

Brecel plays for Belgium's U-19 national team. He is the holder of the European U-17 Snooker Open and managed a couple of maximum breaks during training.

Clark, who is ranked among the top eight U-16 players in England, and Belgium's No.2 U-17 player Eyckmans are also tipped to challenge for the title.

In the inaugural U-17 Open, Malta's Thurston Grixti did well to finish third.

Raymond Debattista, Alfred Borg and Phil Hartley, from England, will referee the 27 games in the tournament which is supported by the sponsorship of San Antonio Hotel, Apple Snooker Club, the Malta Tourism Authority and BOV.