Luca Brecel had the “most surreal escape in history” with an incredible six-cushion shot at the Scottish Open. The 2023 world champion secured a surprise victory over Ding Junhui in Edinburgh.

Ding had won the previous seven meetings against Brecel, whose form has spiralled since he was crowned at The Crucible last year. The Chinese star appeared to be heading for another routine win over his Belgian opponent when he raced into a 3-1 lead in the race to four frames.

However, Brecel made the most of some remarkable fortune to turn the match around and win 4-3. First, he fluked in a red to gain some momentum. Benefitting from that moment might have been enough, but Brecel went on to make a ridiculous escape in the same fifth frame.

Ding seemed to have snookered the yellow at the bottom of the table. Despite the shot appearing impossible, Brecel still attempted to hit it.

The white initially missed the yellow and hit the cushion three times. It seemed destined for the green pocket, only to bounce twice off the cushion and away from danger.

Coming to a slower speed, the white struck the corner of the middle pocket and remarkably headed straight for the yellow. It just about had enough pace on it to make contact. An astonished Brecel beamed at his rival.

“That might be the most surreal escape from a snooker in the history of the sport,” said a stunned Eurosport commentator Philip Studd.

Brecel believes the force of his shot meant it was able to come back round the table and hit the yellow. The 29-year-old says he has the hardest shot in snooker.

"This is incredible," Brecel told Eurosport. "Normally I don’t miss those shots, but I was happy I missed it and got out of it this way. Nobody hits it as hard as me."

Brecel took the momentum of his lucky escape into the final three frames, winning each of them to cruise into the quarter-final.

"It was good," he said afterwards. "The difficult part was getting back to 3-3 and then [in] the decider, I always fancied controlling myself. It was a tough win."

Chris Wakelin joined Brecel in the quarter-final, beating Xing Zihao. Barry Hawkins was dumped out by Wu Yize, with the Brit losing a tight match 4-3.