Sport country Switzerland Century breaks 7 Career winnings £1,683 | Professional 2013–2015 Name Alexander Ursenbacher | |
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Born 26 April 1996 (age 28)
Rheinfelden, Switzerland ( 1996-04-26 ) Highest break 140 (2013 Q School Event 2) | ||
Highest ranking 102 (June–July 2014) | ||
105 break alexander ursenbacher
Alexander Ursenbacher (born 26 April 1996) is a Swiss professional snooker player from Rheinfelden. He is Switzerland's second professional snooker player after Darren Paris, who competed on the main tour in the mid-1990s. He is current Under-21 European Snooker Champion.
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Having qualified for the main tour through Q-School in 2013, where he defeated Paul Wykes in his quarter-final match, Ursenbacher lost his professional status upon the expiry of his two-year tour card in 2015, however regained it two years later after defeating Jackson Page 6–4 in the final of the 2017 EBSA European Under-21 Snooker Championship.
Alexander Ursenbacher 139 clearance in HD
Career
Ursenbacher started playing snooker in 2008. He has won a host of junior titles in his native Switzerland and has won the national championship twice, due in large part to his stays at Snooker Academies in Sheffield and Gloucester and individual training by former World Championship semi-finalist Ian McCulloch.
In 2013 he turned professional by coming through Q School. After an early defeat in Event One, he played superbly throughout Event Two, losing just one frame in four matches and scoring a top break of 140. He beat nine-time Ladies' World Champion Reanne Evans 4–1, then in the final round he saw off experienced former pro Paul Wykes 4–0.
Ursenbacher experienced a tough start to his debut season as a professional, losing his first seven matches. His first win came in November at the minor-ranking Kay Suzanne Memorial Cup against former world champion Ken Doherty, and he was close to following it with another defeat of a world champion in the form of Peter Ebdon in the next round, ultimately losing 4–3. He failed to win another match until the season-ending World Championship, where he came back from 6–2 down to win 10–7 against David Morris. He lost in the next round 10–5 to Thepchaiya Un-Nooh.
Ursenbacher qualified for the first ranking event of the 2014/2015 season, the 2014 Wuxi Classic, by beating Kyren Wilson 5–4, but had to withdraw from the tournament due to being unable to enter China because of a visa problem. He defeated Martin O'Donnell 5–4 in the first round of qualifying for the Australian Goldfields Open, before losing 5–2 to Lyu Haotian and then lost a further 14 consecutive matches to be relegated from the tour as the world number 119. Ursenbacher won five games in the first event of Q School to reach the final round where he lost 4–1 to Daniel Wells. In the second event he was eliminated in the last 32 by Joe Roberts.
Out of the three European Tour events Ursenbacher entered in the 2015/2016 season, he reached the first round of the Ruhr Open, where he lost 4–3 to Rod Lawler. He was knocked out in the opening round of the first Q School event, but in Event 2 he won five matches to stand just a game away from rejoining the professional tour. Ursenbacher lost it 4–2 against Alex Borg.
In March 2017 he won the EBSA European Under-21 Snooker Championship in Nicosia and with it re-qualified for the Main Tour. The victory also allowed Ursenbacher to get an invitation to the World Championship qualifying rounds; he defeated Robert Milkins 10–6 and Scott Donaldson 10–9 to reach the final round (he was the only amateur present at this stage), where he lost 10–4 to Yan Bingtao.