Inside the ‘Ding Junhui curse’ that’s struck at Crucible again after wreaking havoc SIXTEEN times this season alone

FORGET the Crucible Curse, Ding Junhui‘s hex puts that to shame.

And its most recent victim Luca Brecel brought the streak up to SIXTEEN matches this season.

The Ding Junhui Curse started last season at the Players Championship

If a player defeats Ding at an event, they are destined to lose their next match – and it struck again this week for Luca Brecel

Basically, if a player defeats Ding at an event, they are destined to lose their next match.

This spooky jinx has stalked EVERY opponent Ding has faced this season.

It struck again for Brecel at the World Championships on Wednesday – but the Belgian has already been a part of the sequence this year.

Brecel hammered Ding 13-4 in the second round in Sheffield last week, but succumbed 13-8 Judd Trump in the quarter-finals.

With Ding out of an event, his opponents have suffered defeat in the next round, including Ronnie O’Sullivan, Trump, Mark Selby, Mark Williams and Shaun Murphy – who have all been through it TWICE over the last year.

The Ding Junhui Curse was first activated at the 2024 Players Championship last February.

Ding, 38, went out in the first round 6-4 to John Higgins, but Higgins lost his next match in the competition to Zhang Anda.

And it extends over periods when Ding loses a final or gives a bye to an opponent after he pulls out of a competition.

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Even when Trump defeated Ding in the final of the 2024 World Open, The Ace lost his opening fixture at the next tournament – the Tour Championship.

Selby looked destined to end the run after drubbing Ding 10-2 in the semi-finals of the Tour in Manchester earlier this month.

The Leicester Jester led fellow four-time world champion Higgins 8-5 in the final, only to lose the final five frames in a 10-8 defeat.

Even Ross Muir couldn’t break the spell after Ding withdrew from their last-64 meeting at the German Masters in January.

After receiving a walkover, the Scot was dumped out after losing 5-2 to Yuan Sijun in the next round.

Apart from his title run at the International Championship in November, when Ding lifted the trophy with a 10-7 win over Chris Wakelin in Nanjing, every unfortunate rival to defeat the Chinese player has faced an instant demise in the next round.

Robbie Williams was the last person to escape it nearly 14 months ago.

At the 2024 Welsh Open, Williams defeated Ding 4-2 in the last 64 and went on to reach the last 16 where he bowed out to Mark Allen.

This season, the stat began with O’Sullivan at the Shanghai Masters last July.

O’Sullivan defeated Ding 6-3 before losing 10-3 to Trump in the semi-finals.

Of course, while the new hex may only be a seasonal haunting, the 48-year-old ‘Crucible Curse’ shows no signs of being lifted.

Simply put, that curse is the belief that no first-time world champion has ever successfully followed up with a defence in the next year.

Defending champion Kyren Wilson wanted to break it, but lost to 10-9 to Lei Peifan in the first round in April.

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