Luca Brecel – Crucible king just three years ago – will be missing from the line up in the televised stages this time as he lost 10-5 to Jak Jones in the final qualifying round of the snooker World Championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since his 2023 triumph, Belgium’s Brecel has struggled to find that magic again and has slipped to 46th in the World Rankings. He won his first qualifying match against Chang Bingyu but was outplayed today by Welshman Jones, who was runner-up to Kyren Wilson in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
World number 19 Jones led 7-4 with top breaks of 136, 100, 114 and 114 then crucially won frame 12 on the final black after Brecel had missed his chance to close the gap. Brecel pulled one back but Jones then made his fifth century of the match, 132, for 9-5 and settled the result in the next with a 78 clearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I played well, I felt really good this morning,” said Jones, who broke his right hand earlier this season when he smacked it against the table in anger during a practice session, but has since recovered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I love this format because you have time to get into the matches. Today is the best I have played all season. I enjoy the Crucible, you can crumble but I love the atmosphere, it’s an unbelievable venue and that really gets me up for it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jack Lisowski has had a breakthrough season, winning his first ranking title at the Northern Ireland Open as well as reaching the final of the Welsh Open, but he failed to reach the Crucible, losing 10-5 to\u00a0He Guoqiang who will make his debut at the Theatre of Dreams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He will be one of 11 Chinese players at the Crucible, surpassing the record of ten set last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After winning the first five frames with a top break of 138, world number 47 He was able to nurse his lead over the line and reach the last 32.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ali Carter, runner-up in 2008 and 2012, booked a 22nd Crucible appearance by coming from 7-5 down to beat Anthony McGill 10-7, taking the last five frames with a top break of 92. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Anthony was playing with a lot of freedom and I knew I had to stick with him,” said Carter. “I’m delighted to get through, it’s a great achievement to still be mixing it up at the age of 46. I’ve had a lot to deal with away from the table over the past year but that has come to a conclusion and I can focus on snooker. It’s tough – we all have lives to lead, children and families and it’s a juggling act because it’s a busy tour now.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Arguably the best performance of the whole qualifying event came from China’s\u00a0Zhang Anda as he beat Zak Surety 10-3 with breaks of 80, 61, 109, 67, 105, 134, 108, 64 and 143. The former International Championship winner is through to the Crucible for the sixth time though he has never won a match there.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Liam Highfield booked his fourth appearance by thrashing Oliver Lines 10-2 with a top run of 126. Highfield said: “Things have come full circle for me, I fell off the tour and broke my wrist, it was been a long journey coming back so it’s emotional for me to be back at the Crucible. Hopefully my career is on an upward curve now.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fan Zhengyi saw off Ben Mertens 10-4 with top breaks of 104, 119 and 100, while Lei Peifan, who knocked out Kyren Wilson last year, secured his return with a 10-5 defeat of Ryan Day.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the last match to finish, Gary Wilson won a roller-coaster battle with Xu Si 10-9. From 7-2 and 8-4 down, Xu Si hit back to lead 9-8 and he was also 44-0 up in frame 18, but Wilson fought back to force a decider then compiled a superb 126.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FOURTH ROUND RESULTS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Zhang Anda (Chn) bt Zak Surety (Eng) 10-3; Gary Wilson (Eng) bt Xu Si (Chn) 10-9; He Guoqiang (Chn) bt Jack Lisowski (Eng) 10-5; Lei Peifan (Chn) bt Ryan Day (Eng) 10-5; Ali Carter (Eng) bt Anthony McGill (Sco) 10-7; Fan Zhengyi (Chn) bt Ben Mertens (Ger) 10-4; Liam Highfield (Eng) bt Oliver Lines (Eng) 10-2; Jak Jones (Wal) bt Luca Brecel (Ger) 10-5<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Luca Brecel – Crucible king just three years ago – will be missing from the line up in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[378],"class_list":["post-11727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-snooker"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Luca-Brecel.jpg",1536,1080,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Luca-Brecel-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Luca-Brecel-300x211.jpg",300,211,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Luca-Brecel-768x540.jpg",640,450,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Luca-Brecel-1024x720.jpg",640,450,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Luca-Brecel.jpg",1536,1080,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Luca-Brecel.jpg",1536,1080,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Luca-Brecel-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Luca-Brecel-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Luca-Brecel.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11727"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11729,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11727\/revisions\/11729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}