Lucas Kleckers has been a professional snooker player for little over two months. But the 21-year-old German has become one of the stars of the 2017 World Cup after vanquishing both world number four Ding Junhui and world number twelve Liang Wenbo on Tuesday.

Germany's Lukas Kleckers considers his next move during the match against Ireland in the 2017 Little Swan Snooker World Cup in Wuxi on July 6. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

"I had a good day and felt very confident on that day. I didn't make any stupid mistakes, and didn't give them any chances. That's why I could beat them," Kleckers told China Daily in an interview at the tournament venue in Wuxi, Jiangsu province.

Snooker is becoming a popular sport in Germany, especially after the revival of the German Masters in 2011 at the Tempodrom.

However, it was not a big sport in Germany when Kleckers started to play.

"I got to know snooker on TV, and I felt lucky to live in a city [Essen] where there are a few snooker tables, and I started to play there 11 years ago," he said.

The young German first drew attention in 2013 when, at the age of 17, he won the German Championship, the country's most prestigious amateur event, by beating Roman Dietzel 4–2 in the final.

In May, he graduated from Q-School, an amateur snooker competition that serves as a qualifier for the World Snooker Tour, receiving his tour card to allow him to enter professional tournaments for the 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 seasons.

"It was a big surprise. I practiced really hard, and finally the hard work paid off and I'm really happy that I got through Q-School," said Kleckers.