The 2024 World Snooker Championship began the first round of competition, and the first game of the first match day was a shocking upset, the defending champion Brecel suffered a shocking reversal in the match with Gilbert, he lost four games in a row with a 9-6 lead and four match points, and lost to Gilbert with a total score of 9-10, and was eliminated in the first round of the game. China's seeded Zhang Anda had a bad start and was in poor form against qualifier Jack Jones, although the pace was slow, but the cold offensive touch made him temporarily 2-5 down, which was very bad. In other matches on the first match day of the World Championships, world runner-up Carter temporarily led Harry Maguire 5-4, Tom Ford led Wharton 6-3, and world champion Trump led Iran's Hussein Wafi 6-3.
According to the traditional arrangement of the World Snooker Championships, the defending champion took the lead in the opening match, last season's world champion Brecel played with Gilbert to compete for the round of 16, last season Brecel was the king of reversal, he came from behind in many games to achieve a reversal, especially in the semi-finals against Chinese player Si Jiahui, Brecel unbelievably completed the reversal after falling behind 5-14, and finally won the World Championship in one go, becoming the second non-British Isles champion player in the history of the World Championships. Although Brecel is currently ranked high in the world, he has not been in good form this season and is a common occurrence in the first round of ranking tournaments, but even so, as the defending champion, Brecel is still the top seed in this tournament. Brecel's first-round opponent was Gilbert, who had also performed well at the World Championships, and due to Brechel's poor form this season, the suspense of the outcome of this game is still very high.
The match between defending champion Brecel and Gilbert was the focus of the first matchday, Brecel got into the groove quickly at the beginning, and he scored 91 points and 134 points in a row in the first two games, and then won two games in a row, Gilbert was not to be outdone, and then hit two 70+ shots to equalize the score. After being tied by the score, the defending champion did not mess up, and won three more games after scoring 73 points and 104 points in a single stroke, leading Gilbert 5-2. After Gilbert recovered one game, Brecel won two more games to take a 7-3 lead. Gilbert, who was behind, then launched a counterattack, and he won two games in a row in the 11th and 12th games to close the score, and Brecel stopped the loss in time, and scored 85 points in a single stroke in the 15th game to take a 9-6 lead. Gilbert, who had no way out, then suddenly broke out, scoring 65 points, 81 points, 59 points, and 70 points in a single stroke to win four games in a row, and the total score was 10-9 Shocking reversal of the defending champion Brecel and entered the round of 16, and the defending champion Brecel was eliminated from the World Championships in the first round.
On the first day of the tournament, China's seeded player Zhang Anda took to the court to face his opponent, Zhang Anda reached the final of the ranking tournament three times this season, won a championship and two runners-up, and the world ranking also soared to the top 16. Zhang Anda's opponent in the first round was qualifier Jack Jones, who eliminated Chinese star Zhou Yuelong 10-4 in the final round of the qualifying round to advance to the main event.
At the beginning of the game, the two sides fell into a bitter battle, the first game of the game both sides did not feel good, Jack Jones relied on a number of offensive opportunities to take the lead 71-39, and in the second game, Jack Jones hit a single stroke of 55 points and then took the next city 68-7, leading 2-0. In the third game, Zhang Anda repeatedly attacked and struggled to get back a city, and then Jack Jones scored 75 points and 58 points in a single stroke to win three more games, leading Zhang Anda 5-1 in the big score, and in the seventh game, Zhang Anda stopped the loss in time, and repeatedly started to attack 64-37 to chase another game, and the big score was 2-5 behind Jack Jones, if Zhang Anda did not adjust his state in time in the second stage of the game, it would be difficult for him to achieve a reversal. In other matches, world champion Judd Trump temporarily led Hussein Wafi 6-3 after hitting five 60+ shots in the first stage.