Luca Brecel has come through the pack to win his first ever ranking title today at the China Championship. Beating Shaun Murphy 10-5 in the final saw the Belgian take home the £150,000 top prize, putting himself into the top 16 in the world rankings, as well as earning a place in the Champion of Champions, World Grand Prix, Players Championship and a great chance of Masters qualification and automatic Crucible qualification.
Along the road this week Brecel overcame Ronnie O'Sullivan in the quarter-finals making two centuries in a 5-4 victory from 4-1 adrift. Two rounds before at the last 32 stage he killed off the demons of his World Championship defeat (where he lost 10-9 to Marco Fu from 7-1 up) by beating Fu 5-2. His other victims on the week were Jimmy Robertson (5-2 in the last 64), Mike Dunn (5-3 in the last 16), as well as coming through a very nervy semi-final against China's Li Hang.
Brecel has showed promise on so many occasions before, qualifying for the Crucible in 2012 as a teenager and then making the UK Championship qualifiers in the same year and again in 2016 (losing on both occasions to Murphy), on top of that he made the semi-finals of the Welsh Open in 2015 before reaching a maiden ranking final in the 2016 German Masters where Martin Gould was the eventual champion.
Despite losing in the final to Brecel, it was a good week still for Murphy as he took home the £75,000 runners-up prize giving his ranking a boost by cementing his top 8 place, and displaying improved form after a couple of poorer showings in the early season Preston qualifiers. On the way this week he battled past an in-form Ken Doherty, had an early bath in the last 32 when German Masters champion Anthony Hamilton shook hands in the second frame - withdrawing through a back problem. Coming into the last 16 pretty fresh he thrashed an under par Stephen Maguire 5-0, before coming through a quarter-final meeting with Zhou Yuelong who had already beaten Martin Gould and World Champion Mark Selby in the previous two rounds. A semi-final with Ali Carter produced a rare win for Murphy as he came from 4-2 down to win 6-4 and end a run of deciding frame losses for Shaun against Ali in recent years.
The draw opened up rather suddenly on "Freaky Friday" as the last 32 round produced the exits of each of the world's top 6. Mark Selby fell to Zhou Yuelong and Barry Hawkins was sent packing by Mark Davis quite comfortably in the afternoon session. The evening session was even more surprising. John Higgins the "defending champion" was beaten 5-2 by Tom Ford while home favourite Ding Junhui was whitewashed by Alan McManus. Graeme Dott showed there's still plenty of big performances in him yet, with the Scot taking down Judd Trump 5-3 while Brecel himself sent home the final member of the top 6 by beating Fu.
World number 7 Neil Robertson had an early bath, falling on the very first morning of the competition, before many of us in the UK were even awake. The victor there was Li Hang who would go on to have his personal best week by reaching the semi-finals. In all he carried on from his 5-4 win against the Australian by beating the Welsh trio of Michael White (5-4 in the last 32), Matthew Stevens (5-4 in the last 16) and Mark Williams (5-3 in the quarter-finals). The run came to an end in the last four despite fighting back against Brecel to eventually lead 5-4. Chances came and went in the final two frames, twitching a simple enough red in the decider which gifted the Belgian a chance from which he took the match out in one visit.
In the end, the final was not exactly an explosive affair. Murphy played well to start with making breaks of 55, 68 and 107 on the way to a 3-1 advantage. However, a couple of tight frames then went against him as Brecel took four on the trot, and even though the Magician stole frame nine on the black after the Belgian bullet missed frame ball pink, the 5-4 end of session lead for Brecel was an unexpected one given Murphy's early play.
Things only got better for Brecel who took the first two frames in the evening session to extend his advantage to three at 4-7. Murphy kept fighting with a run of 77 helping him to close to 5-7 but a crucial frame thirteen proved too much for the eighth seed to come back from. Only needing the penultimate red down the side cushion to make it 6-7, he missed after his rhythm and flow were somewhat disturbed by a misunderstanding with the referee. Murphy repeated his request for the red to be cleaned on several occasions before the referee (who was insistent on getting either the rest or extended rest out) eventually obliged. In the end Brecel made the clearance for 5-8 and took a couple of scrappier frames, by which time Murphy would have been frustrated to have let things slip, and a 10-5 win for Brecel was complete.
Next up on tour is the Paul Hunter Classic in Furth, an event that the players hold dearly, with the professional stages starting on Friday, while the amateur qualifying stages have already begun.
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