The World Snooker Championship will have a new champion after already in the first round of the main draw of the tournament, the current winner of the trophy, Luca Brecel, suffered an unexpected loss to David Gilbert with 9-10 frames. The Belgian was leading 9-6, but did not take a frame until the end and thus ended his participation in the Crucible.
"The Bullet" started with two tough breaks of 91 and 134 points, but his opponent responded appropriately with two half-century breaks. A streak of three unanswered frames followed for Brecel, who eventually led 6-3 after the first session. In the evening session, the representative of Belgium pulled 7-3 before his rival from England reduced it to 5-7. Brecel came within a frame of a place in the round of 16 after a run of 85 points. Few of the spectators in the Sheffield theatre believed that this was the last frame in the asset of "The Bullet". Breaks of 65, 81, 53 and 65 gave Gilbert the win, who awaits Robert Milkins or Pang Junxu in the next round.
"It wasn't easy for me because I was sick but I tried. Dave played well. He's a fantastic player and he deserves it. I hope he wins the title. I never managed to feel good during the match. I had some strong spells, but in the last session I really felt tired, but I tried. I don't think I could show more. Everyone gets sick from time to time", Brecel said after the defeat and confirmed that he will take a break from snooker and get back to optimal form as soon as possible.
In other meetings that have started, one of the favorites for the title Judd Trump leads Hossein Vafaei 6-3. The Tom Ford vs Ricky Walden result is the same in Ford's favour, with Jak Jones and Ali Carter leading against Zhang Anda and Stephen Maguire 5-2 and 5-4 respectively. /BGNES
