Brecel’s man to break it

MARK ALLEN believes Luca Brecel has a shot at breaking the Crucible curse after his World Masters of Snooker title bid came to a painful end.

The Pistol was gunned down 4-2 by the current world champion in a highquality semi-final shootout in Riyadh.

Brecel (above) became the first man from mainland Europe to win the world title in May but no first-time winner has successfully defended the crown.

“If he can maintain that level of performance then he’ll be difficult to stop in Sheffield,” said world No.3 Allen (inset).

“But there will be a lot of players going there fancying their chances.

“Luca’s going there as defending champion which brings its own pressure. We all know about the Crucible curse.

“If anyone’s going to break it it could be Luca. If you look how easily he ran through the field last year and it wasn’t an easy draw.”

World No.4 Brecel opened up a 2-0 cushion with breaks of 72 and 71.

Antrim ace Allen hit back with centuries of 121 and 133, either side of a Brecel break of 125, to close to 3-2.

And Allen, who came back from 3-1 down in his quarter-final, failed to force a decider this time around as Brecel knocked in a match-winning visit of 82.

“Luca looked like the Luca of last year, he looked really confident,” added Allen. “I think he had two 70s, an 80 and a 100. That will get the job done most times.

“I missed a few half chances, it was a tough school. I was ready to go out there, I have no excuses at all.

“I’ve really enjoyed my time here. It was a great event. Hopefully there are many more events like this in the future and I’ll be back.”