Steve Davis lauded Luca Brecel after the Belgian produced a scintillating session of snooker at the World Championship on Saturday. Brecel dominated Ding Junhui in the early stages of their second round showdown as he ended the evening with a 7-1 advantage.

Ding began the match with a mesmerising break of 141 to take the lead but was forced to sit back and watch Brecel find his top form from thereon in. Brecel hit breaks of 121, 78, 55, 100 and 88 to win seven frames on the bounce as he put himself well and truly in the driving seat to reach the quarter-finals.

Brecel struck a remarkable shot to pot the black and break up the red balls in the final frame of the evening as he demonstrated his prodigious talents with the cue.

And BBC commentator Steve Davis, who won the World Snooker Championship six times, said: “What an effort that was, I can’t tell you how hard that is to do.”

The 67-year-old then made a massive comment about Brecel’s performance as he exclaimed: “We’ve witnessed the most amazing exhibition of snooker, in one session, I think I’ve ever seen at the Crucible.”

He added: “Not in an exhibition match, the World Championship. He’s done this to one of the greatest players that’s ever held a cue, Ding Junhui. Totally taken the thunder from that first frame. Incredible stuff.”

John Virgo, who was also in the commentary box, was taken aback by Brecel’s performance as well as he purred: “Literally just blown him away.”

After Brecel had closed out the final frame of the evening, Virgo added: “Scintillating, superb, any superlative you want to use, it might just not be enough to describe this performance.”

Davis then called for a standing ovation at the end of the session, which the crowd duly delivered.

Brecel tasted victory at the World Snooker Championship in 2023 after getting the better of Mark Selby in the final.

The 30-year-old has struggled for form in recent years, however, and has spent long periods of time training for Ironman triathlons.

He has hit the headlines in recent times due to his reluctance to book hotel stays during some tournaments in favour of flying to snooker locations on the day of matches. And on Saturday he arrived in Sheffield just hours before his Crucible showdown with Ding was due to get underway after taking a private jet from Belgium in the afternoon.

Conor Benn teased a potential rematch with Chris Eubank Jr in a classy interview after losing to his bitter rival via unanimous decision. The highly-anticipated bout went the way of the older fighter, who honoured his legendary father by claiming the spoils after 12 punishing rounds. Neither man left anything on the table in a fight which clearly meant more than just winning.

All three judges scored it 116-112 in favour of Eubank despite how close it was from the first bell to the final seconds of the last round. Benn was visibly distraught as the decision was read out and appeared to be holding back tears as he embraced his father Nigel. He kept it classy in his post-fight interview, though, as he refused to dispute the outcome.

Benn also played down his bitter war of words with the Eubank camp before the bout, dismissing it as nothing more than fighting talk.

“I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe fourteen months out of the ring played a factor. That’d be the only thing, inactivity. Apart from that, I felt like it was a close fight. I’m not going to go ‘yeah I think I won it’ and all that.

“I’ve got to watch it back. I know it was close. I stayed on the ropes maybe a bit too long. He worked harder towards the end. But I’ll have to watch it back.

“I enjoyed it and a massive thank you to all my supporters who came out. Some homecoming. We always knew Chris is a good fighter. All the fighting talk is fighting talk. He’s a good fighter.”

Benn went on to insist that while he would be open to a rematch with Eubank, he would also be happy to return to welterweight and face Mario Barrios for a world title shot.

“If we don’t do the rematch, which I’d love to avenge that loss, I’ll drop down to welterweight and win the WBC world title,” he added. “It’s either Mario Barrios or the rematch with Eubank. Whichever happens next, I’ll be content with.”

His father Nigel also spoke in the immediate aftermath of the fight to emphasise the importance of losing gracefully. He made it clear that he was proud of his son despite the result, pledging to examine what went wrong and go back to the drawing board.

“I thought he did really well,” said the elder Benn. “He’ll learn a lot from this. He’ll come back stronger. He was working too much on the ropes.

“He should’ve been off the ropes, but we’re not taking anything away from Chris. It’s his night. We can handle defeat gracefully, you know what I mean? Now we go back to the drawing board and look where we went wrong. That’s it.”

Chris Eubank Jr has been taken to hospital as a precautionary measure after his win over Conor Benn. A gruelling 12-round battle went the way of Eubank Jr with all three judges scoring it a 116-112 victory in the 35-year-old’s favour at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

The British middleweight was then advised by the British Boxing Board of Control doctor to go to get checked over and he left the stadium in an ambulance. Such actions are commonplace for boxers who have gone the distance in tough fights as a precaution. Eubank Jr wore a cut over his right eye after a clash of heads and looked exhausted towards the fight’s conclusion after dropping down to make the 11st 6lb middleweight limit.

Speaking after his win, Eubank Jr said: “First of all, thank the one above. I knew I was capable of that. I just needed someone to bring that out of me. I’m not going to lie, I didn’t expect he’d be the guy to do that. The fact our fathers did what they did all those years ago, it brings out a different soul, a different spirit into you.

“That’s what we both showed here tonight.”I pushed through. There’s a lot of things that have been going on in my life that I’m not going to get into right now. I’m happy to have this man back with me. We’ve upheld the family name like we said we were going to do. Onwards and upwards.”

Eubank Sr was present to witness the fight despite previously requesting for it to be called off and calling his son a “disgrace” for slapping Benn with an egg at a press conference. The 58-year-old turned up by surprise alongside his son and later insisted in the ring: “I was always going to be here.”

Asked about having his dad present, Chris Jr said: “It was a big lift. It was one of those things that was special. It was special. He needed to be here. All of this was because of what he did. And we did it again baby.”

On his opponent Benn, Eubank Jr admitted: “Everything surprised me. I didn’t know he had what he had in him. I really didn’t. I thought I’d break him early. I underestimated him. I didn’t train for a fight like that. I didn’t know he had that in him. He’s never shown that but then again he’s never had to show it. He had to show it tonight. So did I.”

While the defeated Benn reacted: “Maybe fourteen months out of the ring played a factor. That’d be the only thing – inactivity. Apart from that, I felt like it was a close fight. I’m not going to go, ‘Yeah I think I won it.’ and all that, I’ve got to watch it back. I know it was close.

“I stayed on the ropes maybe a bit too long. He worked harder towards the end. But I’ll have to watch it back. But I enjoyed it and a massive thank you to all my supporters who came out. Some homecoming. We always knew Chris is a good fighter. All the fighting talk is fighting talk.

“He’s a good fighter. I believe I can fight at 160lbs. If we don’t do the rematch, which I’d love to avenge that loss, I’ll drop down to welterweight and win the WBC world title. It’s either Mario Barrios or the rematch with Eubank. Whichever happens next I’ll be content with.”