Luca Brecel was defeated 5-4 by Duane Jones within the Wuhan Open qualifiers on Monday in Leicester.
The Belgian Bullet would have been hoping for a fast begin to the brand new 2024/25 snooker season having struggled for kind over the past marketing campaign.
Because the world champion, the 2023/24 time period didn’t go as deliberate with solely fleeting examples of what he’s able to.
Brecel gained the World Blended Doubles and reached the finals of two invitational occasions however now hasn’t gained a match on the primary tour since March.
It’s a depressing stretch that features his collapse within the first spherical of the World Championship and two reverses already this season.
Final week, issues had been confounded by his failure to indicate up for his scheduled match within the Xi’an Grand Prix qualifiers.
Caught in site visitors on the best way to the Mattioli Area from mainland Europe, Brecel was timed out and eradicated from the brand new profitable occasion in China.
The 29 year-old boasts just one quarter-final look in a rating event since touchdown the game’s most coveted prize on the Crucible Theatre in 2023.
Luca Brecel stays the world quantity 4 on the official rankings, however a have a look at the provisional end-of-season record makes for grimmer studying.
Though there may be nonetheless quite a lot of snooker to be performed this season, Brecel finds himself down at quantity 55 on the provisional end-of-season standings.
That’s not far off the cut-off level of 64 for tour survival, leaving the four-time rating occasion winner with work to do to ensure his security.
It might be an outrageous set of circumstances if Brecel had been to conclude the marketing campaign preventing for his skilled standing.
However one other few early exits earlier than the top of the calendar 12 months would heap additional strain on his shoulders heading into the second half of the season.
In opposition to Jones within the Wuhan Open qualifiers, Brecel led 4 occasions however misplaced the final two frames towards the Welshman to bow out of the competitors.
Elsewhere, there have been a few different notable upsets with Tom Ford shedding 5-2 to Sunny Akani and Stuart Bingham crashing out in a 5-1 reverse to Xing Zihao.
There have been victories for Championship League Snooker winner Ali Carter, Ryan Day, Hossein Vafaei, and former world champion Graeme Dott.
Anthony Hamilton was taken the space by Reanne Evans however saved his greatest for final, compiling a superb 114 break within the decider.
On Tuesday, the preliminary section for the Wuhan Open qualifiers will conclude with the remaining fixtures.
Mark Allen, Neil Robertson, and Jack Lisowski are in motion towards Bai Yulu, Ken Doherty, and Liam Graham respectively.
2024 Wuhan Open qualifying draw and schedule
Spherical of 128 (bo9)
Sunday, July 28
Sanderson Lam 5-3 Huang Jiahao
Fan Zhengyi 5-0 Mink Nutcharut
He Guoqiang 5-0 Baipat Siripaporn
Stephen Maguire 4-5 Cheung Ka Wai
Xu Si 5-1 Ian Burns
Si Jiahui 5-3 Gong Chenzhi
Chris Wakelin 5-1 Ma Hailong
Barry Hawkins 5-3 Jiang Jun
Gary Wilson 5-4 Alexander Ursenbacher
Anthony McGill 5-3 Simon Blackwell
Aaron Hill 5-2 Ashley Carty
Robert Milkins 5-1 Farakh Ajaib
Jamie Clarke 5-4 Alfie Burden
Ricky Walden 4-5 Mostafa Dorgham
Joshua Thomand 0-5 Allan Taylor
Robbie Williams 5-4 Kreishh Gurbaxani
John Higgins 5-1 Ben Mertens
Jamie Jones 3-5 Haris Tahir
Mark Selby 4-5 Lengthy Zehuang
Shaun Murphy 5-1 Michael Holt
Dominic Dale 3-5 Jimmy White
Monday, July 29
Stuart Bingham 1-5 Xing Zihao
Pang Junxu 5-2 Révész Bulscú
Ali Carter 5-3 Wang Yuchen
Wu Yize 5-1 Rory Thor
David Grace 3-5 Ishpreet Singh Chadha
Iulian Boiko 5-4 Manasawin Phetmalaikul
Tian Pengfei 5-3 Andrew Higginson
Hossein Vafaei 5-0 Ahmed Elsayed
Ryan Day 5-3 Liu Hongyu
Scott Donaldson 1-5 Zak Surety
Graeme Dott 5-2 Julien Leclercq
Tom Ford 2-5 Sunny Akani
Matthew Selt 5-2 Liam Pullen
Joe Perry 4-5 Daniel Womersley
7pm UTC+1
Anthony Hamilton 5-4 Reanne Evans
Elliot Slessor 5-3 Artiemijs Zizins
Luca Brecel 4-5 Duane Jones
Ben Woollaston 5-1 Oliver Traces
David Lilley 5-1 Mohamed Shehab
Noppon Saengkham 5-1 Daniel Wells
Joe O’Connor 3-5 Hammad Miah
Tuesday, July 30
10am UTC+1
Mark Allen vs Bai Yulu
Jackson Web page vs Lei Peifan
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh vs Louis Heathcote
Dylan Emery vs Kok Leong Lim
Lyu Haotian vs Andrew Pagett
Xiao Guodong vs Haydon Pinhey
Zhou Yuelong vs Marco Fu
2:30pm UTC+1
Jimmy Robertson vs Amir Sarkhosh
Neil Robertson vs Ken Doherty
Jack Lisowski vs Liam Graham
Jak Jones vs Ross Muir
Mark Davis vs Chris Totten
Matthew Stevens vs Stan Moody
Heldover Matches
Schedule TBC
Judd Trump vs Antoni Kowalski
Yuan Sijun vs Wildcard
Ding Junhui vs Robbie McGuigan
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Mitchell Mann
Zhang Anda vs Dean Younger
Jordan Brown vs Wildcard
Martin O’Donnell vs Wildcard
David Gilbert vs Wildcard
Kyren Wilson vs Liam Davies
Methods to watch the Wuhan Open qualifiers
Whereas there is no such thing as a entry for followers on the venue for the Wuhan Open qualifiers, supporters in Europe can watch the snooker on-line on discovery+.
In China, protection is accessible on Huya.com, whereas followers in all different territories can watch by way of a subscription on Matchroom.Dwell.
Featured picture credit score: WST
