Over the coming days we'll have feature articles on a few of the players set for a debut season on the World Snooker Tour. First up it's Austria's first ever pro, Florian Nuessle...
At the age of just 12, Florian Nuessle had to make one of the biggest decisions of his life. Naturally gifted at sports, he excelled at football, golf and snooker. But, guided by his supportive family, he could choose only one to pursue as a career.
"At one stage football was my favourite, I was with Sturm Graz from the age of five to 11, but I had a sickness in my lungs so I had to give that up," he recalls. "I was in the national junior golf team but they had a very demanding training schedule. Snooker was the sport where I'd had the most success. I first played at the age of five, after watching it on TV with my dad, who loves snooker. I was fascinated by the game straight away. When I was 11 or 12 I started playing in tournaments and won a few. So when it came to the decision of which one to focus on, I chose snooker."
By the age of 16, Nuessle was the undisputed champion of Austrian snooker, having won the national title as well as the under-21 and under-16 events. His sights were set on the main tour and becoming the first professional from his country. As it turned out, that journey was far from easy. On multiple occasions he came within one match of earning a tour card, but couldn't get past the finish line. Nuessle's most painful moment was a 4-3 defeat against Dean Young - from 3-1 up - in the final round of Q School in 2023, which left him in tears.
"There have been doubts," he admits. "Each time I missed a chance to get on tour, the feeling that it might never happen for me was growing. I still had belief that I would make it in the end. After that match against Dean, I was really close to calling it quits. I was in a mental hole, I was drained and not motivated to keep going. My family supported me and I am really grateful for that, but in the end it was down to me. I have always wanted to be a snooker player and never really had a Plan B."
Finally, Nuessle achieved his ambition, and did so in style, winning a tour card at the WPBSA Q Tour Global Play-Offs in Turkey in March. After beating Josh Thomond and Ehsan Heydari Nezhad to reach the final, he thrashed Andres Petrov 10-3, rounding off the contest with a break of 108.
"It was a big relief, and it felt great to perform so well in that situation, when I had struggled in the past," he recalls. "I proved to myself that what I had always believed was true, that I am good enough to be a pro. Hopefully that's a good sign. Of course the tour is a big step up, but now I know I can play that well in those kind of pressure situations. And I am really proud to be the first Austrian pro, that's something special."
The bright lights of snooker's global circuit won't be entirely new to Nuessle as he has played in several pro tournaments as an amateur. In fact last season he enjoyed a tremendous run to the quarter-finals of the Shoot Out, before losing to Mark Selby, and also knocked Jiang Jun and Liu Hongyu out of the Welsh Open.
"I feel prepared, and excited to start the journey," he said as he looked ahead to his rookie pro season. "If I had earned my tour card a few years ago, perhaps it would have been too early and I wouldn't have been ready, so maybe that's a good thing. I feel a certain calmness now and I think that comes from the experiences I have had already of playing in the big events.
"The obvious goal for the first two years is to get in the top 64 and keep my place on the tour. I feel that is a realistic goal and a good one because it will be a big challenge. If I can do that then we'll see where I can go from there - ultimately I want to win tournaments. The one aspect of the game where I know I will need to learn fast is shot selection. Hopefully I can learn a lot from playing against the top players."
Nuessle has decided to remain based in Austria, where he practises solo at his home in Salzburg, and travel to the UK a few days before each tournament to sharpen his game with fellow pros. He still finds time for an occasional game of golf, and in fact shot level par for 18 holes for the first time this week. But, with glory on snooker's biggest stage now within his grasp, that decision he made at the age of 12 has proved the right one.