SHEFFIELD: Defending champion Ronnie O’Sullivan succumbed to an astounding collapse as he was knocked out of the ongoing World Snooker Championship 2023 after a shocking 10-13 defeat at the hands of Luca Brecel.

Reigning champion Ronnie O’Sullivan resumed his quarter-final clash with Luca Brecel with a solid 10-6 advantage only to lose seven consecutive frames from 10th-ranked Belgium’s cueist, who recorded a 13-10 victory at the Crucible.

Briefly after heading into the final session, O’Sullivan made a costly error as he managed to miss a black off its place; allowing Brecel to benefit. In the following frame, The Rocket made another mistake that was met with a break of 64.

Brecel then eventually managed to cut O’Sullivan’s lead to 10-9 before soon catching up with the seasoned cueist with a break of 72.

After drawing level with O’Sullivan after the 20th frame, there was no stopping Brecel as he continued his domination with breaks of 66, 78 and 63 to claim a remarkable victory.

Brecel completely outclassed O’Sullivan in the finale as the latter failed to win a single frame in the session for the first time after his 17-11 loss to Graeme Dott in the 2006 semi-final.

In another enthralling quarter-final, Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen made it to the World Snooker Championship semi-finals for just the second time in his decorated career with a hard-fought 13-10 victory over Jak Jones.

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