Luca Brecel admitted there was happiness and relief after a winning start at the European Masters in Lommel. The Belgian is playing in his homeland this week and had a smattering of close friends and family looking on as he got his quest for glory on home turf off to a successful start after a 4-2 defeat of Welshman Daniel Wells in the carryover round.

Brecel did trail 2-1 in the early stages but managed to force himself over the line with three frames on the bounce and conceded there were some early nerves.

“In the beginning I was a nervy. In the fourth frame I made a 97 break and I relaxed so I’m happy to win,” said Brecel.

Having won the fifth frame, a break of 60 in the next was enough to secure Brecel’s passage into the next round.

The 2017 China Championship winner is keen to put on a show for his home crowd and the 23-year-old makes no secret of how much it would mean to have a strong run in Belgium this week.

“There are so many people in the crowd that I know, friends and family, so I just wanted to win so I could go and talk to them after the game instead of going home straight away,” he added.

“I’ve been dreaming about that since I was a kid so it would be amazing [to win this week], but it’s such a long way off. I have to win six games. I’m just looking to my next game and that’s it.”

Brecel is 1.33 favourite to win his first-round game against Luo Honghao, who can be backed at 3.20.