Brecel Battles To Reach Quarter-Finals

Luca Brecel showed his resolve to overcome Cao Yupeng 5-4 and reach the last eight of the Yushan World Open.

Brecel lifted his maiden ranking title earlier this season at the China Championship, defeating Shaun Murphy 10-5 in the final. The 22-year-old has shown great maturity in bouncing back from an agonising 10-9 World Championship defeat against Marco Fu at the end of last season, where he spurned a 7-1 advantage.

Today it was the Belgian who inflicted the comeback on his opponent. Cao led 3-1 and 4-3 with a top break of 78. However, Brecel pegged him back, making a break of 83 in the final frame to cross the line.

Brecel said: “I’ve won a lot of matches from behind, so I still felt comfortable at 3-1 down. He made it very tough for me today.”

Brecel will face another in-form player Anthony McGill, who whitewashed Lee Walker 5-0 to book his last eight spot.

McGill reached the final of last week’s Indian Open, but lost out to compatriot John Higgins. The Scot stopped his opponent from registering a frame today and had a high break of 137 in the win.

Li Hang came through an epic tussle with 2002 World Champion Peter Ebdon 5-3 to reach the quarter-finals.

Li reached his maiden ranking semi-final at this season’s China Championship and will have the opportunity to once again reach the last four tomorrow when he faces McGill. The Chinese star had to dig deep today in a win which took over four hours to complete.

Ding Junhui is still in the frame to lift the World Open title for the first time following a 5-1 demolition of Joe Perry.

The 12-time ranking event winner completed today’s win with consecutive breaks of 75, 60 and 63.