Masters 2024: Jack Lisowski wins Luca Brecel and Shaun Murphy also advances

• Jack Lisowski beats Luca Brecel and Shaun Murphy also advances.

Jack Lisowski claimed a 6-2 win over world champion Luca Brecel as the 50th edition of the Masters got under way in stunning fashion at Alexandra Palace.

Breaks of 70, 100, 96 and 69 gave England’s Lisowski a commanding 4-0 lead at the mid-session interval.

The Belgian rallied with runs of 80 and 72 but Lisowski sealed his win with breaks of 63 and 68.

Lisowski will now face Shaun Murphy in the quarter-finals on Thursday after he beat Chinese debutant Zhang Anda 6-2.

A half-century helped 2015 winner Murphy take the opening frame and he was always in control, opening up 3-1 and 5-2 advantages before completing his victory.

Meanwhile, Lisowski, who has reached just one semi-final on the world tour this season, credited a confidence-building run to the final of a lucrative exhibition event in Macau over the festive period for his excellent start to the second of this term’s Triple Crown events.

“You never know what it is going to be like when you come out here but I felt like I could not miss in the first four frames,” Lisowski told BBC Sport.

“I think I found something in China because I was really struggling and I was really scared coming here because I did not know which Jack was going to turn up.

“For me this is the scariest tournament to play in and I started well and then it turns into a great place to play.”

Murphy sweeps Anda aside
Since winning the Championship League in July, Murphy has endured a mixed campaign and suffered a disappointing first-round exit at the UK Championship in York.

But his greater experience and poise told against Zhang who is enjoying the best spell of his career, having reached the final of the English Open in October a month before securing a maiden title at the International Championship.

Zhang had levelled the match at 1-1 with a composed 84, but several loose shots proved costly on Sunday as the Englishman came from behind to take the third frame and won a pivotal fourth.

Murphy’s superb 65 clearance to go 3-1 up came only after Zhang snookered himself on a black that would have left his opponent requiring a snooker.

Breaks of 86, 71 and 89 saw Murphy reel off three of the next four frames to set up a contest against Lisowski, who thrashed him 6-1 in the 2022 UK Championship.

“(The fourth frame) is a massive, massive steal as it looked like we were going to be two each and of course those frames are so important,” said Murphy.

“What a mouth-watering match to play Jack. I don’t think there’ll be much safety in that one.”

Lisowski powers past below par Brecel
While Lisowski and Brecel are regarded as two of the most exciting players in the modern game, a highly anticipated shootout between the pair failed to materialise in front of one of the biggest crowds on the snooker circuit.

Brecel, who has disappointed since winning the world title in scintillating fashion at the Crucible in May, looked shorn of confidence.

The ‘Belgian bullet’ handed the initiative to world number 16 Lisowski, who took the opener with a clearance of 70.

Lisowski complied his 300th century break in the second frame after Brecel had missed a long red and played a poor safety shot, and took the third after his opponent screwed the white into the left middle pocket.

With a whitewash seemingly on the cards, Brecel found some momentum as Lisowski’s briefly stalled, taking the first frame after the interval.

Nine reds and nine blacks also saw the world number four threaten a maximum 147 in the sixth frame before he broke down on 72.

But he was unable to sustain his fightback and cut a dejected figure as the match concluded.

“(That was) terrible,” Brecel said. “Every ball I see I just feel like I am just going to miss. It is just something I have to go through. Confidence comes and goes quickly, it is a strange thing.

“If I keep playing like this you will see me playing in Q School [the qualifying competition for the world tour] in 2025. At the moment it is just not good enough but Jack is a great player and I am happy for him.”