Marvellous Mortreux Wins French Snooker Title
Nicolas Mortreux defeated Niel Vincent 4-2 in the final to win the 2023 French National Snooker Championship at the Dinard Billiard Club in the north-west of the country.
Runner-up in 2019, it is the first time that 20-year-old Mortreux has claimed his nation’s most prestigious snooker accolade. He has also previously won the French under-15 and under-18 titles, and earlier this year he successfully defended the under-21 championship.
Organised by the French Federation of Billiards, Wambiax-based Mortreux finished top of his group and qualified for the knockout rounds of the event. He then made a 58 break during a 2-0 victory against Dimitri Vivier in the last 16, and registered runs of 67 and 44 as he defeated 2013 champion Adrien Frostin 3-0 in the quarter-finals.
In the last four, Mortreux faced three-time champion Alexis Callewaert; the opponent that denied him the title four years ago. Winner of the 2019 EBSA European 6-Red Snooker Championship in Serbia, Callewaert had ended the reign of defending champion Christophe Lambert in the round before.
Callewaert crafted a clearance of 90 as he moved one frame away from another final appearance, but Mortreux levelled with frame four before ousting the deciding frame on the final black ball to record a dramatic 3-2 win.
Emerging from the other side of the draw was Vincent, winner of the Championship in 2015 and 2017, and last year’s defeated finalist. The 23-year-old didn’t drop a single frame on his way to the semi-finals where he constructed breaks of 101, 64 and 56 during a 3-1 success against Jean-Marc Beauchamp to reach the final for the fifth time.
In what would be an entertaining title match, Vincent deposited the opening frame on the colours but Mortreux responded with a 60 break in frame two to make it 1-1.
Vincent went back ahead with the help of an 86 break in frame three, however, Mortreux strung together the next three frames for the title – winning the fourth on the final pink, and compiling breaks of 55 and 54 in frames five and six respectively.
It has been a very busy time for Mortreux over the past few weeks having been in England for the UK Q-School and then travelling to Bulgaria where he reached the semi-finals of this year’s European 6-Red Snooker Championship.
Last season, Mortreux was a regular on the Q-Tour.