Boosts for Brecel and Lisowski at Championship League Snooker

Brecel and Lisowski won their respective stage one groups with 100% records on Wednesday at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester to advance in the £328,000 ranking tournament. Qualification is a boost to both players having experienced difficult starts to the new professional snooker season.

Former World Champion Brecel began his Group 31 campaign by making breaks of 82 and 51 in a 3-0 win over Mitchell Mann. The Belgian then stayed on the baize and scored another 3-0 victory (50 break), this time over rookie Deng Haohui.

Earlier in the day, Deng had defeated the group’s top seed Aaron Hill, 3-1, but Irishman Hill bounced back in his second assignment as he registered runs of 92 and 50 in getting the better of Mann, 3-1, to keep himself in contention to top the pool.

Qualification ultimately came down to the final fixture between Hill and Brecel. Hill - needing a 3-0 victory to replace his opponent at the summit - made a 69 break in the opening frame but it was Brecel who pinched it on the final black to win the group.

The match was still completed, though; Hill crafted a 107 to level up but four-time ranking event winner Brecel took the final two frames to end the day with a maximum nine-point haul.

Since claiming snooker’s ultimate prize over three years ago at the Crucible, Brecel has not featured in a ranking event final. In fact, he has reached only one ranked semi-final in this period.

As a consequence, Brecel has dropped down the world rankings, and is currently 44th in the global standings. However, on the end-of-season provisional list, he is projected outside the top 64 meaning he has some work to do to keep his professional tour card.

A winner of both the invitational and ranking versions of the Championship League, Brecel’s start to this new top-flight term had been less than ideal having failed to qualify for either the China Open or Wuhan Open.

Over on the main feature table, reigning Northern Ireland Open champion Lisowski also won three matches out of three as he conquered Group 7.

The world number 17 was in fine scoring form early in the day as he compiled efforts of 79, 85, and 52 in defeating Jack Bradford 3-0. He then maintained his unblemished record with a 3-0 success over Zhao Hanyang (breaks of 59 and 58).

Elsewhere in the pool, Liam Highfield also collected top points from victories over Bradford and Zhao, although with his winning results both being 3-1, it meant that Lisowski had the better frame difference going into their crunch match at the end.

Requiring a win, Highfield made a good start by depositing the first frame, and seemed set to double his lead before missing a red that would have left Lisowski needing penalty points. In what turned out to be a dramatic climax to frame two, Lisowski ousted it on the final black having missed the same ball just moments before.

And the 35-year-old built on that steal, getting the point he needed in frame three with the aid of a run of 69 before registering a 3-1 win with an 87 in frame four.

Like Brecel, Lisowski is already out of both the China Open and Wuhan Open events, so today’s outcome will be very welcome for him.

The final day of stage one action takes place on Thursday and 2025 World Champion Zhao Xintong is scheduled to enter the fray.