Luca Brecel’s World Championship Fight for Survival: Former Champion Faces Historic Rankings Plunge

Luca Brecel, the 2023 World Snooker Champion, is staring down the barrel of an unprecedented rankings collapse as he prepares for the 49th edition of the World Championship. While the Belgian star has secured his place on the professional tour for next season, his position among snooker’s elite is hanging by a thread.

Just two years after etching his name into the history books by defeating Mark Selby 18-15 at the Crucible to become Belgium’s first world champion, Brecel now faces a drastic fall from seventh in the world to a provisional 45th. This massive drop is the result of the 500,000 ranking points he earned for his world title run in 2023 expiring at the end of this season.

Earlier in the campaign, Brecel flirted with the possibility of losing his professional status altogether—something no previous world champion in the modern era has experienced just two years after lifting the sport’s biggest prize. Though he has managed to stay inside the top 64 and avoid that humiliation, his recent form offers little assurance that he can reverse the rankings spiral.

To have any chance of staying in the top 25, Brecel will likely need to reach at least the semi-finals of this year’s World Championship. A place in the final might just keep him within touching distance of the top 16, while another world title would be the only way to maintain his current status among the game’s elite.

This season has been underwhelming for the “Belgian Bullet.” Despite earning £125,000 as runner-up to Mark Allen at the non-ranking Riyadh Season Championship, his absence from key events like the World Grand Prix, Players Championship, and World Open has cost him crucial points. His best showing in a ranking event came with a semi-final appearance at the Welsh Open, where he lost 6-3 to Selby.

In contrast, veteran Mark Davis continues to defy the odds. The 51-year-old sealed a 10-7 victory over Robbie McGuigan in the second round of World Championship qualifying, extending his incredible 34-year run on the main tour. Davis, a three-time Six-red World Champion, is poised to climb to 51st in the rankings and now faces Ben Woollaston for a place in the final qualifying round. His resilience, especially after nearly losing his tour card two years ago, stands in sharp contrast to the rapid fall of Brecel, highlighting the unpredictable and unforgiving nature of professional snooker.