Brecel never looked entirely comfortable in his first outing defending his title, but still held a 9-6 lead at one point and looked set to progress to the second round.

However, the Belgian was not able to finish off his opponent, and Gilbert slowly edged his way back into the match by winning the following three frames to enforce a final-frame decider, which he won in relative comfort. It means Brecel adds his name to a long list of previous first-time winners at the Crucible who have failed to defend their title.

It was not all smooth sailing for Gilbert either, with both players missing regulation shots and Gilbert missing two pots on a red to win the match before finally sealing victory to set up a match with either Robert Milkins or Pang Junxu.

Elsewhere, Judd Trump is well poised in his first-round match against Hossein Vafaei, leading 6-3 with the match to be completed tomorrow. Trump had taken a 3-0 lead before the pair traded frames to leave the deficit the same, with Trump needing another four frames to secure victory.

Ali Carter's match against Stephen Maguire has also carried over with Carter 5-4 ahead, while Jak Jones and Anda Zhang will pick up on Sunday with Jones 5-2 ahead.

Last season's beaten finalist Mark Selby is also in action on Sunday as he gets his tournament underway against Joe O'Connor, who is the only debutant in this year's edition.