World Champion Brecel Loses Again! In the postponed qualifying round of the German Masters, facing Indian professional newcomer Chada, Brecel lost four games in a row after 2-1 and failed to reach the round of 64.
In all fairness, Chadda's strength is indeed not weak, he has won Bingham and McGill since turning professional, and has a good single-shot scoring ability, and the two played against each other at the European Masters at the beginning of the season, and Brecel won very hard. However, as the months passed, the season gradually entered a critical stage, and instead of delivering a better performance, Brecel was avenged by Chada, which is still a big surprise.
At the turn of last spring and summer, Brecel defeated Williams, O'Sullivan, Si Jiahui and Selby with a pleasing performance to win the World Championships for the first time. At that time, Brecel still gnawed on such a tough lottery when he was not practicing to realize his dream of the top of the world, which also became a topic of conversation among fans. But going into this season, with the title of World Champion on the field, in the face of the influx of activity from the outside world, and in the face of more ferocious onslaught from old and new opponents, Brecel is clearly not fully prepared.
Looking back at this season, Brecel had a decent start to the season, and the European Masters reached the round of 16 and lost to eventual champion Hawkins, which is acceptable; The Shanghai Masters defeated Williams again and reached the final, only to lose 9-11 to O'Sullivan, a performance that made many fans hope that the Belgian would start a new era.
The turning point came at the British Open and English Open, where Brecel lost to Ding Junhui in the postponed qualifying round and the 16-8 tiebreaker respectively. These two games seem to have become a watershed in the form of the two this season, and since then, Ding Junhui's results have become more and more stable, and he is now in sixth place in a single season, with a series of good results such as the runner-up in the British Championship and the semi-finals of the World Grand Prix. On the contrary, Brecel's performance is becoming more and more sluggish. As of the German Masters, Brecel's best result in the Ranking Tournament is only three round of 16 (including the British Championship, which only has 32 draws in the main draw), while the Masters and the Champion of Champions have both suffered first-round defeats, and he has won no more than three consecutive matches in all competitions this season. Brecel currently sits in 51st place in a single season after missing out on the World Grand Prix, and tickets to the Players Championship and Tour Championship have been even more difficult after the German Masters exit.
It's not uncommon for a season to be sluggish after winning the World Championships, and after winning their seventh World Championship title in 2022, the season has been underwhelming from last season to the start of the season. However, Brecel's situation is still rare in history. Of course, with three months to go until the end of the season, Brecel still has a chance to save his own season, especially with the World Championship title defence going to be the Belgian's top priority next.
At the moment, not many fans may think he can break the Crucible curse that has been in the dust for years, but Brecel's amazing talent is enough to make him magical at some point – just like last year's World Championships. The premise is that against opponents who are more wolf-like and in-form than a year ago, he will need to put in more investment than before.