World Snooker Championship: Jimmy White ‘in shock’ to see Luca Brecel ‘completely blow away’ Ronnie O’Sullivan

Brecel roared back from 10-6 down by winning every frame in the final session to knock out the defending champion and deny him the chance to win an outright record eighth Crucible title.

O’Sullivan did not have a break above 30 in Wednesday’s finale and has failed to reach the semi-final stages of a ranking tournament this season.

“Today he [Brecel] has come out and completely blown O’Sullivan away,” White told Eurosport. “O’Sullivan missed a few but Luca was awesome.

“He had a lot of freedom because Ronnie was missing a lot of balls but sometimes you can get blown away by them style of players if they’re playing at their best.

“Incredible result, still in shock, good luck to Luca. He plays the way he wants to play and he’s winning.”

Brecel, who says he did 15 minutes of practice before the World Championship, seemed to play with lots of freedom.

Alan McManus thinks the Belgian Bullet has the characteristics to beat any player on his day, including O’Sullivan, which he proved on Wednesday.

“If anyone was going to take down Ronnie, then I suppose, when you think about it, maybe that’s the style that was going to take him down – fast and furious, just fast and loose,” said McManus. “There’s not many guys can play like that on the tour.”

White added: “That’s very true but Mark Allen and Anthony McGill are more measured people. The people I felt could beat Ronnie was John Higgins and Mark Selby.

“No disrespect to Luca but I thought Ronnie would get through.”

McManus thinks the 28-year-old could go on to win the title if he plays like he did against O’Sullivan.

“You’ve got to say that he can [win it],” he said. “To bombard Ronnie with what he did this afternoon was, quite honestly, up there with the best sessions that have ever been played in this place. There’s been a lot to choose from, we know that.

“But he’s playing this fast and loose style that if he continues with it, then you just don’t know because he’s not thinking about anything.

“It’s just off the cuff [but] it’s difficult to keep that going for another 30-odd frames.”

White added: “Whether he runs out of steam or someone keeps punishing these big mistakes when he goes for these big shots and they don’t get in…

“If someone is getting in and scoring, then he keeps attacking – but at the moment they’re going in and he’s just beat Ronnie O’Sullivan, so who knows!”

– – –