Luca Brecel fluke dubbed 'one of the best you'll ever see' as Crucible crowd lap it up

's luck was in to book his place in the quarter-finals of the . The 2023 champion has shown glimpses of the form that sparked his surreal success in Sheffield two years ago, and his latest win was inevitable as he started the evening session just one frame away at 12-4.

After the restart, he duly took control again, building up a 42-0 lead. However, a poor positional shot on the blue left him impeded by the yellow ball, forcing him into a change of plan. After deliberation, the Belgian player instead chose to line up the pink to the bottom pocket.

A flustered Brecel missed the pot, the pink cannoning out of the jaws and back up the table. However, in a spectacular bit of luck, it bounced back off two cushions and nestled into the middle pocket to all but seal the frame.

"Can you believe that?" said BBC commentator Dennis Taylor. "Ding Junhui can't believe what he's just seen there. That's one of the best flukes you'll ever see. Have a look at this here. Boy oh boy."

That's nasty business that isn't it," added Stephen Hendry. "It was all caused by getting the wrong side of the blue but that's all forgotten now. That's an outrageous fluke."

Ding looked motionless as Brecel capitalised on his good fortune. He went on to make a break of 71 to secure a 13-4 win, setting up a mouthwatering last-eight clash with world No.1 .

Afterwards, Brecel, who opted to fly back to Belgium between his first-round win over Ryan Day and the match with Ding, warned his best was yet to come, saying: "I felt quite good, not 100 per cent at the top of my game yet but good enough to win."

On his clash with Trump, he added: "It could be explosive but it could also go scrappy and you never know how the balls go. But if we both play well it should be a cracking game."