Snooker: Defending champion Brecel at the Snooker World Championship right outside

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Defending champion Brecel at the Snooker World Cup right outside

Defending champion Luca Brecel was eliminated from the Snooker World Championships. photo

© Richard Sellers/PA Wire/dpa

This was not to be expected: Snooker world champion Brecel was eliminated in round one in Sheffield. In doing so, he lost a comfortable cushion.

Snooker world champion Luca Brecel has to give up defending his title in Sheffield after the first day of the World Cup competition. The 29-year-old Belgian surprisingly lost 9:10 in the first round to David Gilbert from England and was eliminated.

Brecel had already led 9:6 and then missed numerous chances in the final phase of the game. Outsider Gilbert will face the winner of the game Robert Milkins (England) and Pang Junxu (China) in the round of 16.

Brecel is the first world champion to be eliminated in the first round since Mark Selby in 2018. After the afternoon session, the co-favorite was still leading 6:3. The possible jump to third place in the world rankings is now ticked off for the Belgian. In the best case scenario for him, Brecel takes third place after the tournament (until May 6th).

England’s best of the year, Judd Trump, got off to a good start in the tournament at the Crucible Theater and leads 6-3 against Hossein Vafaei (Iran) after one session. The second session is on Sunday (3:30 p.m.).

dpa

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