Luca Brecel’s World Championship triumph to spark European snooker boom

LONDON: Belgium’s Luca Brecel said European snooker would “explode” after he became the first player from the continental mainland to be crowned world champion.

Brecel withstood a fightback from four-time champion Mark Selby to triumph 18-15 at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre on Monday.

Victory also meant Brecel joined Canadian Cliff Thorburn (1980), the Republic of Ireland’s Ken Doherty (1997) and Australian Neil Robertson (2010) as only the fourth modern-era world champion from outside the UK.

Having overturned huge deficits to defeat both seven-time world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan and Si Jiahui in the quarter and semifinal rounds respectively, Brecel held his nerve after Selby had eroded his lead to just one frame.

The 28-year-old Brecel, an outstanding junior talent but a player who had never won a match at the World Championship before this year’s edition, started Monday’s concluding session 15-10 up.

Selby, however, won five of the next six frames as he closed to just 16-15 behind.

But the Englishman then missed a black off its spot and Brecel capitalized to move within a frame of victory at 17-15.

Brecel then demonstrated excellent cue-ball control around the black in a superb match-winning break of 112.

“It’s amazing, I can’t see any more, I don’t know why,” Brecel told the BBC.

“So tough, he (Selby) is the worst opponent to have in a final, he just keeps coming back, he’s such a fighter, when it was 16-15 I didn’t fancy winning at all, I was missing balls by a mile but then I made a good break.”

Asked what his win would mean for European snooker, Brecel replied: “It’s going to explode, I was so nervous because I wanted it to happen for Belgium and Europe and now I can’t wait to see what it brings, I’m