World Snooker Championship 2025: Luca Brecel remains on course for record-breaking drop in rankings ahead of Crucible return
Published 11/04/2025 at 12:22 GMT+1
Luca Brecel will need a lengthy run at the 49th World Championship to remain in touch with the sport's top 16 ahead of next season. Brecel flirted with the prospect of losing his tour card earlier this season only two years after lifting the world title at the Crucible in Sheffield, but while he is safely among the top 64 for next term, the Belgian faces a record-breaking plunge in the rankings.
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Luca Brecel will avoid the ignominy of losing his status as a professional only two years after winning the world title, but the 2023 Crucible winner remains on course for a remarkable record-breaking plunge down the rankings.
The Belgian Bullet famously partied hard after defeating Mark Selby 18-15 to become his country's first world champion, but is set to face a sobering reality unless he can produce another lengthy run at this year's event.
With the 500,000 points he picked up from claiming the title in awe-inspiring style set to come off his overall points haul at the end of the season, Brecel will drop from seventh in the world to a lowly 45 before the start of next term.
He is likely to require a run to the semi-finals of the sport's biggest event later this month to remain inside the top 25, depending on results elsewhere, while a spot in the final would leave him on the fringes of the game's top 16.
Only a second world title victory inside three years will be good enough for the seventh seed to retain his spot among the elite with the £500,000 first prize required to replace the huge loss of points from his two-year total.
Brecel had been in danger earlier in the campaign of being the first player in history to win the World Championship and then lose his place on the main professional circuit two years later.
As it stands, Brecel, who is 44th on the one-year list after failing to qualify for the World Grand Prix, Players and Tour Championship, will drop 38 places with no other world champion in the modern history of the sport suffering such a dramatic slump in fortunes so soon after claiming snooker's biggest crown.
Brecel lost 5-1 to Mark Allen in the final of the Riyadh Season Championship before Christmas, earning £125,000, but ranking points were not on offer.
He did not compete at the World Open in Yushan in February with his last competitive action seeing him lose 6-3 to Selby in the semi-finals of the Welsh Open earlier in the month, his best performance at a ranking event of the campaign.
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Despite reaching the final of the invitational Shanghai Masters last season, losing 11-9 to Ronnie O'Sullivan, he has toiled for points at ranking events, with his run to the 2024 Welsh Open last eight before a 5-3 loss to Martin O'Donnell the highlight of his previous campaign.
Brecel needs to win his first match at the Crucible to earn any ranking points with £20,000 available if he can overcome a qualifier in the round of 32.
He lost the final four frames in a 10-9 defeat to David Gilbert in the opening match of his title defence a year ago.
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Snooker GOAT O'Sullivan told TNT Sports Brecel is a player he would like to help improve "his consistency levels".
"I think Luca Brecel’s an interesting case. But I’m not sure he’s somebody that you could coach really, in many ways," said the seven-time world champion.
"I think he’s pretty much got all the game, but with someone like Luca, you’d be scared to touch him because he’s such a natural talent.
"But I think there are some little areas where he could maybe improve his consistency levels.
"Instead of playing lights-out snooker for 20% of the year, he could play lights-out snooker for 10% of the year.
"But then his middle game becomes a lot stronger.
"I believe someone like him is so talented that he doesn’t need to play brilliantly to win. So he’d be an interesting case."
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Meanwhile, evergreen Hastings potter Mark Davis is set to continue his unbroken 34-year stay on the professional tour after completing a 10-7 win over Robbie McGuigan in the second round of qualifying for the Crucible on Thursday.
The former world No. 12 compiled seven 50-plus breaks and is set to move up two spots in the world rankings to 51 before he faces Ben Woollaston in the third qualifying round on Sunday.
Davis almost lost his tour card two years ago after being edged out 10-9 by Joe Perry in the final Crucible qualifier, but the suspension of several players involved in a match-fixing probe enabled the three-time Six-red world champion to extend his lengthy professional career.
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