O'Sullivan suffers early Championship League exit, but Lisowski advances

Ronnie O’Sullivan lost his Group 2 decider to He Guoqiang at the Championship League in Leicester on Tuesday to suffer an early exit at the season’s first ranking event.

The seven-time world champion produced breaks of 72 and two 53s in a 3-0 win over Kayden Brierley, but was held to a 2-2 draw by Mitchell Mann leaving him needing a win over He to secure his progress to the last 32.

But it was last season’s rookie of the year who held his nerve to produce breaks of 80, 57 and 77 in a 3-0 win at the Mattioli Arena that catapulted him top of Group 2. a point ahead of Mann and two clear of O’Sullivan.

Elsewhere, Jack Lisowski enjoyed a dominant performance in winning Group 12 as a run of 138 saw him defeat Anton Kazakov 3-0 before further knocks of 127 and 106 helped him dump Jiang Jun 3-1.

A 2-2 draw with Mark Davis in his final group outing was enough to see him end the day on seven points, two clear of Davis.

The action continues on Wednesday with Ali Carter, Zhou Yuelong, Fan Zhengyi and Mink Nutcharut chasing a spot in the last 32.

Stage one consists of 32 groups of four players. The eight group winners contest a further two groups with the winners meeting in the final.

There is £33,000 on the table for the winner plus a spot in the Champion of Champions later in the year which is worth another £12,500 for qualifying.