Ronnie O’Sullivan is in line to extend his stay as world No. 1 without picking up a cue at this week’s British Open in Cheltenham.
O’Sulllivan’s decision to miss the event gave Brecel a golden chance to realise his dream of taking over at the top for the first time, but a 4-3 loss to Ding Junhui in the first round of the British Open on Monday means he will have to wait longer to reach the summit.
World No. 2 Brecel needed to reach the third round to topple snooker GOAT O’Sullivan, who he trails by 5,000 points in the rankings, but lost a decider after levelling at 3-3 from 3-0 behind.
Mark Allen could yet take over at the top if he can go one better than his run to the final of the British Open a year ago, where he lost 10-7 to Ryan Day.
Allen completed a 4-1 win over former Crucible semi-finalist Anthony McGill on Monday. He dropped the first frame as McGill compiled a 58 break, but knocks of 57, 81 and 94 assured the Northern Irishman of a last-64 match against Kyren Wilson in another top-16 battle on Tuesday. Wilson set up the clash by defeating Martin O’Donnell 4-1.
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Watch O’Sullivan lift the Shanghai Masters trophy
The world No. 3 Allen trails O’Sullivan by 42,500 points, but needs to claim the £100,000 first prize on Sunday evening to land top spot for the first time in his career.
In an FA Cup-style open draw, the matches are the best of seven frames with the quarter-finals increasing to the best of nine, before two best-of-11 frame semi-finals and a best-of-19 frame final.
Elsewhere on Monday, Day began his title defence with a 4-0 whitewash of Sean O’Sullivan, while there were also wins for Mark Selby, Neil Robertson, Judd Trump, Mark Williams and Shaun Murphy.
‘Jackpot’ Jack Lisowski is also through after hitting two centuries in a 4-3 win over former Scottish Open finalist Joe O’Connor.
British Open latest first-round results
- Jimmy Robertson 4-0 Steven Hallworth
- John Higgins 4-1 Long Zehuang
- Shaun Murphy 4-1 Rebecca Kenna
- Jack Lisowski 4-3 Joe O’Connor
- Mark Selby 4-2 Ben Woollaston
- Kyren Wilson 4-1 Martin O’Donnell
- Ryan Day 4-0 Sean O’Sullivan
- Barry Hawkins 4-0 Stan Moody
- Neil Robertson 4-1 Jamie Clarke
- Gary Wilson 4-1 Ahmed Aly Elsayed
- Mark Allen 4-1 Anthony McGill
- Mark Williams 4-1 Peng Yisong
- Ali Carter 4-3 Allan Taylor
- Judd Trump 4-2 Anton Kazakov
- Ding Junhui 4-3 Luca Brecel
- Robert Milkins 4-2 Jiang Jun
