Hardly anyone would have expected Luca Brecel in the final of the Snooker World Championship before the tournament started. His opponent on Sunday and Monday is Mark Selby, who was one of the favorites beforehand and was able to live up to his role in Sheffield these days.
Selby has already been world champion four times, and the now 39-year-old Englishman is contesting his sixth final at the legendary Crucible Theater against Brecel. The 28-year-old Belgian, on the other hand, was only able to win his first match at a World Cup this year. He has never had to walk such long distances before.
“It’s uncharted territory for me and it won’t be easy,” he said before the final, in which 18 frames won are needed for the title. Brecel described his opponent as the “King of Crucible” and knows: “If I try to play his game, I won’t have a chance because his safety game is so great.”
In fact, the styles of the two finalists could hardly be more different. On the one hand there is the sometimes wild Brecel, who wants to take every chance, no matter how small, that is offered to him on the snooker table. His opponent is the great tactician Selby, who prefers to go around the table three times before a critical shot and analyze what the best solution is.
Their semi-finals were also quite contrary. While Brecel was already 5:14 behind against the Chinese Si Jiahui, only to prevail in the end with 17:15 and thus put down the biggest comeback in Crucible history, Selby looked safe in his match against Mark Allen on Saturday evening winner when he led 16-10. In the end, however, he still had to tremble against the Northern Irishman and made it to the finish with 16:15.
However, the two players agree on one thing – the value that a world title would have for them. “If I win here in the end, that would be my biggest win ever,” said Selby, who recently struggled with mental health issues. Brecel, on the other hand, stated: “Winning here would be something I couldn’t have dreamed of, especially after this year.” It would be crazy for snooker in Belgium and Europe, he added.
Brecel is the first continental European to reach the final at the World Snooker Championships and is the only player from mainland Europe in the top 100 in the world rankings, along with compatriots Julien Leclercq and Ben Mertens and Germany’s Lukas Kleckers. “He’s one of the greatest talents in this game and it’s great to see him finally deliver on that big promise. We’ve known for a long time how good he can be,” praised Selby Brecel before the finale.
500,000
Pound gets the win of the final.
At the age of 14, Brecel became the youngest U19 European champion in snooker history. In 2012, aged just 17, he qualified for the World Championships for the first time, becoming the youngest player ever to do so. “The bigger the stage, the better for me. It doesn’t matter who I play against. I don’t have to hide from anyone,” he once said. Now he really seems to be there.
During the World Cup in Sheffield, however, Brecel tried to refute the fact that the current success requires not only talent but also hard work. He would only have trained for 15 minutes before the tournament and would have preferred to spend the night playing “Fifa” with friends instead. Plenty of alcohol flowed, just like after the second-round win against Mark Williams: “After that, I went partying until 7 a.m. and then again until 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. the next day. I was drunk as hell,” Brecel told the amazed journalists.
The fact that he was then able to defeat Ronnie O’Sullivan in the quarterfinals is all the more surprising in view of this. Especially since Brecel was already 6:10 behind in this match to then win seven frames in a row to win 13:10.
Brecel is an outsider again against Mark Selby, but a dangerous one and one who’s finally showing what he’s capable of. “I hope I can inspire people. Because snooker is such a great sport. A lot of people find it boring, but once you get the hang of the game it’s wonderful to watch.” In the Sheffield final, Luca Brecel can prove it himself against Mark Selby.
