World Snooker Championship 2024: Defending champion Brecel in control of opening round tie

Reigning champion Luca Brecel leads qualifier David Gilbert 6-3 at the end of the first session in their round one match on the opening day of the 2024 World Snooker Championship.

Having won his maiden world title in memorable fashion here last year at the Crucible Theatre, the 29-year-old got off to a brilliant start as he made breaks of 91 and a 134 total clearance in taking a 2-0 advantage early on.

However, errors began to creep into Brecel’s game, and Gilbert - a world semi-finalist in 2019 - capitalised, registering runs of 70 and 77 to go all square at 2-2 heading into the mid-session interval.

After the break, though, momentum swung again as ‘The Belgian Bullet’ slotted home a beautiful long red and compiled what was effectively a frame-winning effort of 73.

Brecel then re-established a two-frame cushion as he pounced on a missed red from Gilbert whilst opening the pack, compiling his second ton of the match with a 104. The gap then stretched to three frames as Brecel punished further mistakes from his opponent in frame seven.

Needing to stop the rot, 42-year-old Gilbert responded in fine style with a break of 115 after Brecel had botched a safety shot earlier in the frame.

An important final frame of the session went very scrappy, but it was defending world champion Brecel who claimed it to lead 6-3 and place himself just four more frames away from progressing to the last 16.

The duo will return to the Crucible this evening for the concluding session.