Snooker world champion Luca Brecel reveals Shanghai ambition during Hong Kong visit

‘Belgian Bullet’ picks out Shanghai Masters among tournaments he will target as he looks to live up to being world champion
He also hopes to play in Hong Kong Masters if last year’s event is repeated – and believes taking Ronnie O’Sullivan’s world No 1 ranking is in his reach

World Snooker

Mike Chan

Published: 9:10pm, 22 Jul 2023

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World snooker champion Luca Brecel has said during a visit to Hong Kong that he is relishing playing in China again – with September’s Shanghai Masters top of his wish list.

The four-time ranking tournament winner also said he hoped to play at the Hong Kong Masters if last year’s event were to be repeated.

“The Belgian Bullet” was on a personal tour when he met young local players and media at the General Snooker Club in Hong Kong’s To Kwa Wan district on Friday – but is already looking forward to his next trip to the country.

“I’d like to win one or two tournaments this season, any tournament, really,” said Brecel, who stunned the sport by claiming the world title in entertaining fashion in May, beating Mark Selby 18-15 in the final.

Luca Brecel demonstrates some of the tricks of his trade in Hong Kong on Friday. Photo: Jonathan Wong

“If you have to choose, of course you’d pick the bigger ones like the Triple Crown events, but the Shanghai Masters is one of my favourites, so if I could win that one it would be great.”

The 28-year-old leapt to No 2 in the world rankings thanks to his Crucible triumph – but knows he has plenty to do to stay there.

“There are so many good players at the top of their game, so it’s difficult, but I’d love to win at least one [this season],” he said.

“Because if you don’t win a tournament as a world champion, people are going to say it’s been a bad season.”

In fact, he sees reaching the top spot as a realistic goal, especially given that current No 1 Ronnie O’Sullivan likes to pick and choose which events to play in.

“Ronnie is going to lose a lot of points and I am not, so I’ve got a good chance to be the No 1 – I just need to have a good season and I’ll make it,” Brecel said. “World champion and world No 1, that is the ultimate goal.”

Brecel, who also won the Champions League and was a finalist at the British Open last season, will start his new season with the European Masters in Germany in late August, with the Shanghai event next.

And he said he is committed to playing in all three tournaments in China this season.

“One hundred per cent, I’d love to come to China,” Brecel said. “It’s going to be quite a strange feeling playing there again, but I am really looking forward to it, especially in Shanghai.

“We also have Wuhan as a new tournament in October, so I’m looking forward to that, and then we have the International Championships [the month after]. It’s been a long time since I last played in China, and so those are nice things to come.”

The Belgian said he would love to play in Hong Kong, after reading about the city’s Masters invitation tournament last October, which is not in the 2023 calendar.

“Hopefully one day I can play at the Hong Kong Coliseum – I was hoping to play at the event this year but it didn’t happen, so hopefully next year we will have something,” he said.

Macau, the city’s neighbour, announced last month that it had lured several of the world’s best for an exhibition event this Christmas, but Brecel was missing from the line-up.

It will, however, include O’Sullivan, Judd Trump, Mark Williams, Hong Kong’s Marco Fu Ka-chun, China’s Si Jiahui and Ding Junhui, Kyren Wilson and Jack Lisowski.

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