Brecel Secures Shanghai Lead

World Champion Luca Brecel holds a 6-3 advantage over Australia’s Neil Robertson heading into the concluding session of their semi-final showdown at the Shanghai Masters.

Belgium’s Brecel has never beaten Robertson, having lost all three of their meetings on the World Snooker Tour. He requires just four more frames to rectify that in today’s best of 19 encounter. The winner this evening will progress to face seven-time World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan over the best of 21 frames tomorrow for the title and the £210,000 top prize.

This morning’s match got off to a cagey start, with Brecel eventually winning a 43-minute opening frame. He then took the second on the black, before making it 3-0 courtesy of a break of 68. Robertson crucially composed a break of 95 to take the fourth and remain in contention at 3-1 heading into the mid-session interval.

When play resumed Robertson closed the gap to a single frame, before Brecel made his move and pulled clear. Breaks of 99 and 56 helped the 28-year-old on his way to three on the bounce and a 6-2 advantage.

Brecel then led 40-0 in the last frame of the session, but a loose safety allowed 2010 World Champion Robertson in to compose a steely 90 and reduce his arrears to 6-3 ahead of this evening.