Belgium’s Luca Brecel won his first ranking tournament as he beat Shaun Murphy 10-5 in the final of the China Championship in Guangzhou. Brecel came from 3-1 down to win nine of the last 11 frames against 2005 world champion Murphy. Victory for the 22-year-old sees him rise inside the world’s top 16 for the first time, while he also becomes the first player from continental Europe to win a ranking tournament, as he pocketed a winner’s cheque of £150,000.
Brecel reached his first ranking event final last year, losing to Martin Gould at the German Masters. Earlier this year he qualified for the final stages of the Betfred World Championship and squandered a 7-2 lead against Marco Fu, losing 10-9. He admits he has achieved a massive career milestone with his win over Murphy. “It’s amazing, a dream come true,” said Brecel. “Especially to beat a player like Shaun in the final of such a big event. “Hopefully there will be many more to come. Shaun played really well to go 3-1 up then I came back to go 5-3.
When I lost the last frame of the first session I was devastated because I should have been 6-3 up but it was 5-4. I went back to the hotel and had some food and I was relaxed again. “It was a massive moment to go 8-5 up because if it had been 7-6 it would have been very close. “It means so much to me to win a tournament, especially beating a lot of good players and coming from 4-1 down to beat Ronnie. This is a big milestone because it puts me in the top 16 and gets me into other tournaments.”