Luca Brecel lost his World Championship-winning snooker cue ahead of new season: ‘It was my favourite cue'
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Published 21/08/2023 at 13:54 GMT
Snooker world champion Luca Brecel is looking ahead to his match with Jackson Page at this week’s European Masters, but he admits he’s still struggling to come to terms with losing the cue that helped him to Crucible glory during a round-the-world holiday he undertook to celebrate his year of stunning success. Watch the European Masters and other top snooker live on Eurosport and discovery+.
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Luca Brecel’s preparations for the new snooker season have suffered a major blow as he revealed that his “favourite ever cue” was lost on a flight from the USA to Europe.
The Belgian Bullet took a round-the-world trip to celebrate winning last season’s World Snooker Championship and he hasn’t played a competitive match since defeating Mark Selby in the final of that competition at The Crucible in May.
But while he’s looking to build on that success on his return to action at this week’s European Masters, where he plays Welsh player Jackson Page in the opening round in Nuremberg, Germany, Brecel has admitted that his confidence has taken a hit because he will be playing without the cue that helped him to World Championship glory.
Speaking to the World Snooker Tour website about the new season, 28-year-old Brecel said: “Very excited. It’s a shame, though, that my cue got lost. When I got back from Seattle to Frankfurt, the cue didn’t show up.
“It was my favourite cue, I won the World Championship with it. I’ve had it for maybe two years, but I got really used to it, it was the best cue I ever had – my favourite cue ever.
“It’s a nightmare to travel with, sometimes I wish I was a darts player with a small case.
“They [the airline] said to report it online and fill in a form and hope you get it back. I’m still waiting, when I check the status online it says they are still searching for it.”
The player from Dilsen-Stokkem in Belgium is known for his relaxed demeanour and attacking style of play that saw him defeat world No. 1 Ronnie O’Sullivan 13-10 on his way to winning last season's World Championship, but he’s confessed to being worried about playing without his favourite wood and isn’t expecting too much from his performance at the European Masters.
"Normally I don’t worry about it but this time I do because my other cue is not that good, I’m not that used to it," he said.
"The other one was so good, I felt like I couldn’t miss sometimes and now it’s going to be different.
"Obviously I’ve travelled a lot, I’m still a bit tired, so I’m not quite confident in the first one. Maybe the first one is a bit of practice and Shanghai [Masters] is going to be the first proper tournament."
Brecel takes on Page on Tuesday in the opening round of the European Masters and will face the winner of the first-round match between Mark Williams and Pang Junxu at the Shanghai Masters next month. Over at the British Open in September, meanwhile, he will be lining up against Ding Junhui.
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