Luca Brecel concedes midway through match on professional snooker tour return

2023 World Champion Brecel was playing his first competitive fixture of the 2025/26 season having withdrawn from several events this term.

Following a no-show at the Wuhan Open qualifiers in June, Brecel pulled out of the subsequent British Open qualifiers and Championship League.

A few weeks ago, the four-time ranking event champion was in the draw for the big-money Saudi Arabia Masters in Jeddah, but the day before his opening match, news was released by organisers that he would not be travelling to the event.

The next day, Brecel posted on his Instagram account explaining the reason for his absence from recent events was because he was suffering with health problems, and that it had been really frustrating not being able to travel and compete in tournaments.

However, last week, Brecel uploaded a photo of himself seemingly practicing for the upcoming Xi’an Grand Prix qualifiers, as well as a countdown clock for his match on Tuesday night.

Prior to his tie with Akani, Brecel posted several times on Instagram showing that he was in Leicester. The Belgian travelled to the city the day before and stayed in a hotel; this is in stark contrast to how he has prepared for several matches in the recent past by cutting it fine and travelling on the day.

At last season’s Xi’an Grand Prix qualifiers, Brecel failed to show up on time for his match due to traffic delays whilst coming over from continental Europe, and opponent Hammad Miah was awarded a walkover.

On this occasion, though, Brecel was at the Mattioli Arena on time to face Thailand’s Akani. However, his return to snooker’s top flight ultimately did not go according to plan.

Playing his first match since his World Championship quarter-final defeat to Judd Trump in late April, Brecel scored just six points across the opening two frames as Akani - who made a break of 82 in frame two - went 2-0 up.

World number 74 and two-time ranking event quarter-finalist Akani was then in the balls in frame three with a 39 points lead when Brecel unexpectedly got up from his chair and offered his hand in concession to his opponent.

Brecel’s concession was calm; he pleasantly chatted to Akani by the table, and although sound couldn’t be picked up from the livestream, Brecel’s actions seemed to suggest that he had some sort of an issue with his cue, and felt that he couldn’t continue the match.

Therefore, 29-year-old Akani received a 5-0 win and qualifies for the main venue, televised stages of the £850,000 world ranking event that takes place in China in October.

Brecel explains reason for Xi’an Grand Prix concession on Instagram

Later in the evening, Brecel posted on Instagram to explain that he was using someone else’s cue.

In translation from the original post, the message read: “I couldn’t use my own cue today.

“Every decent snooker player knows how difficult it is to have to play with a borrowed cue from a colleague!

“With fighting spirit I still started the match, but very quickly realised that there was absolutely no feel in that piece of wood.

“The feeling in my arm has been unbelievably good these last weeks...absolutely nothing that could be done about this, but we keep on going.”

If Brecel has an issue with his existing cue, Akani could be someone who could fix the problem for him, as he is a cuemaker who has recently provided Ronnie O’Sullivan with a new one.

Brecel’s next scheduled engagement on the Tour is this Sunday evening in Leicester when he is due to face either Liam Davies or Ng On Yee in Northern Ireland Open qualifying.