Luca Brecel falls outside the world's top 32 rankings after Crucible Theatre quarter-final exit

Two years ago, Brecel became the first player from mainland Europe to win snooker's blue riband prize when he defeated Mark Selby 18-15 in the final.

The Belgian pocketed the £500,000 winner's kitty and shot up the rankings as a result, and for several months was in contention of being the world number one.

However, due to the nature of the prize money-based two-year rolling ranking system, Brecel has now tumbled down the global standings, and will start the 2025/26 season outside the world's top 32.

At the ongoing Championship in Sheffield, 30-year-old Brecel recovered from 5-1 down to defeat the experienced Ryan Day 10-7 in the opening round. This was his first victory at the Crucible other than his wins en route to the title in 2023.

In the last 16, 'The Belgian Bullet' produced a scintillating spell of signature snooker as he strung together 11 successive frames in a 13-4 win over Ding Junhui.

Facing pre-tournament favourite Judd Trump in the quarter-finals, Brecel once again went on a winning streak, turning a 5-1 deficit into a 7-5 lead, although world number one Trump firmly had the momentum in the closing stages as he pieced together a six-frame sequence for a 13-8 victory.

Brecel is somewhat of an 'all-or-nothing' player, but there had been green shoots of recovery for him during the second half of the season, leading up to his latest Crucible campaign.

Still the richest event on the professional circuit, Brecel collects £50,000 for his efforts over the past several days at the World Championship.

A very tidy amount, but Brecel was defending the £500,000 he added to his rankings tally from his world title triumph 24 months ago - therefore, he has a net loss of £450,000 coming from his two-year cumulative points total.

Please note, Brecel still keeps all the physical prize money he won - it's just points from his total that he will lose.

Since Brecel's most glorious day at the Crucible in 2023, it has been a bit of a disappearing act from the former world number two in ranking event competition.

Over the past two seasons, Brecel has appeared in just five ranking quarter-finals. His best result was a semi-final finish at the 2025 Welsh Open in mid-February - his last outing on the World Snooker Tour prior to his recent Crucible tilt.

In both seasons, Brecel has failed to qualify for any of the three lucrative Players Series events through the one-year list.

It has been different for Brecel at invitational events during the same two-year period, though.

He reached the final of the 2023 Shanghai Masters, and the finals of both stagings of the Riyadh Season Championship in Saudi Arabia in 2024. Alongside Reanne Evans, Brecel won the 2024 World Mixed Doubles Championship in Manchester.

However, as these competitions were non-ranked, not a single pound of prize money he earned went towards his ranking.

What are the consequences for Brecel and his dip down the world rankings?

With just three matches to go at the 2025 World Snooker Championship, at best, Brecel will begin the new 2025/26 professional snooker season in 38th place. Should Zhao Xintong reach the Crucible final, Brecel would drop a further place.

Being outside the top 16 or top 32 means Brecel will start in an earlier round of tiered-format competitions.

The three most lucrative ranking events on the professional circuit - the Saudi Arabia Masters, UK Championship, World Championship - all use a tiered draw system.

Players ranked between 17 to 48 will each need to win two 'qualifying' matches to reach the 32-player 'main' draw where the world's top 16 players enter the fray.

All four Home Nations events, and the German Masters, currently use a tiered format. Only the top 32 ranked players are guaranteed a spot at the main venue, while all the other entrants must win either one or two matches at the qualifiers to reach the 64-player final rounds in front of the television cameras.

Having been such a prominent figure over the past couple of years, it will feel a bit strange seeing Brecel back in these low-key preliminaries.

Being outside the top 16 also means that Brecel would miss out on several big invitational events that he has enjoyed recent success from.

However, it's not a hopeless situation for Brecel, who can dig himself out of this rut.

Because of the dynamic structure of the world rankings - which get revised after every ranked event - in-form players can rapidly shoot up the ladder with the prize money they earn.

Looking at the provisional end-of-season ranking list, though, Brecel is over £200,000 short of 16th place, so he has a lot of work to do to get back within the sport's elite bracket.

Although, he has previously worked his way back into the world’s top 16 after falling outside.