Austria prepares to host its first world professional ranking event in Dornbirn over the coming days, but on the domestic front, the country crowned its latest national snooker champion last weekend.
Held at the KÖÖ 7 Snooker Club in Vienna, 18-year-old Florian Nuessle once again underlined his potential as he claimed the title for a fourth consecutive year; dropping just one frame in the process.
Nuessle began his trophy defence by making breaks of 97 and 50 whilst defeating Andre Strojnik 4-0 in the last 16, he then notched up a quartet of half-centuries when eliminating Mario Bodlas 4-1 in the quarter-finals.
Returning for finals day, the teenager registered runs of 72 and 57 to dispatch Thomas Janzso 4-0 before requiring less than 80 minutes to deny maiden finalist Jerome Liedtke 5-0 in the final, where he produced an incredible performance that saw him rack up breaks of 55, 64, 61, 86, 60 and 67.
A potentially exciting prospect for the future, Nuessle had recently returned home after reaching the knockout phase of the World Snooker Federation Open in Malta earlier in the week.
Runner-up at the 2018 European Under-18 Championship where he lost to Jackson Page 5-3 in the final, Nuessle also made the last eight of last year’s European Amateur Championship. Alongside playing partner Andreas Ploner, Nuessle represented Austria at the Beverly World Cup in China last summer.
Results from the quarter-finals onwards:
Florian Nuessle 4-1 Mario Bodlas
Manuel Pomwenger 2-4 Thomas Janzso
Jerome Liedtke 4-3 Elias Kapitany
Vladislav Arion 2-4 Philipp Koch
Semi-Finals
Nuessle 4-0 Janzso
Liedtke 4-2 Koch
Final
Nuessle 5-0 Liedtke