Kyren Wilson recorded three wins from three as he got his 2023/24 snooker season off to a perfect start in Leicester.
The 2020 champion almost made the first 147 break of the new campaign, but a missed pink during his 3-0 defeat of Louis Heathcote in Group 5 scuppered his chances of what would have been a fifth career maximum.
Wilson had earlier beaten amateur Josh Mulholland by the same margin and with the aid of a 112 century break.
A 3-1 victory over Andy Hicks towards the end of the day put the icing on the cake in his march forward to the last 32 of the competition.
Wilson was the inaugural winner of this ranking event edition of the Championship League three years ago when he overcame Judd Trump in the final.
- CLICK HERE: Michael White dominates Group 10
Meanwhile, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh was in similarly dominant form as he romped into Stage Two with a 100% record as well.
The quick-fire potter from Thailand compiled back-to-back breaks of 132 and 140 to triumph over Florian Nuessle in his first round-robin fixture.
Defeats of Victor Sarkis and Elliot Slessor followed as Un-Nooh safeguarded his involvement in the next group phase in July.
On Friday, Stage One will continue with Groups 6 and 27 at the Morningside Arena.
Mark Williams stars in Group 6 with the Welshman launching his new season against Ken Doherty, Dylan Emery, and Polish amateur Daniel Holoyda.
In Group 27, former Welsh Open champion Jordan Brown will be in action alongside Julien Leclercq, Barry Pinches, and Joshua Thomand.
Stage 1 draw
| Group 1 (July 10) | Group 2 (July 11) | Group 3 (June 26) | Group 4 (July 12) |
| Ronnie O’Sullivan | Judd Trump | Shaun Murphy | |
| Scott Donaldson | Xu Si | Tian Pengfei | |
| Rod Lawler | Jimmy White | Lukas Kleckers | |
| Alfie Burden | Reanne Evans | Ashley Carty | Andrew Pagett |
| Group 5 (June 29) | Group 6 (June 30) | Group 7 (July 6) | Group 8 (July 7) |
| Kyren Wilson | Mark Williams | Ali Carter | Robert Milkins |
| Dylan Emery | Jackson Page | Dominic Dale | |
| Ken Doherty | Long Zehuang | Muhammad Asif | |
| Daniel Holoyda | Ryan Davies | Alex Taubman |
| Group 9 (July 14) | Group 10 (June 28) | Group 11 (June 27) | Group 12 (July 12) |
| Gary Wilson | Barry Hawkins | ||
| John Astley | Michael White | Zhang Anda | |
| Mink Nutcharut | Martin O’Donnell | Sanderson Lam | |
| Ma Hailong | Jamie O’Neill |
| Group 13 (July 13) | Group 14 (July 14) | Group 15 (July 4) | Group 16 (July 3) |
| David Gilbert | Ricky Walden | Stuart Bingham | Jimmy Robertson |
| Yuan Sijun | David Lilley | Matthew Stevens | Ben Woollaston |
| Sean O’Sullivan | Peng Yisong | Allan Taylor | Liam Graham |
| Ishpreet Singh | Liu Hongyu | Duane Jones | Peter Lines |
| Group 17 (July 5) | Group 18 (July 11) | Group 19 (July 10) | Group 20 (July 8) |
| Zhou Yuelong | Joe Perry | Noppon Saengkham | Matthew Selt |
| Ashley Hugill | Jamie Clarke | Mark Davis | James Cahill |
| Oliver Brown | Andy Lee | Jenson Kendrick | Andres Petrov |
| TBC | Stuart Carrington | Ross Muir | Sydney Wilson |
| Group 21 (June 27) | Group 22 (June 28) | Group 23 (July 7) | Group 24 (July 6) |
| Chris Wakelin | Fan Zhengyi | Pang Junxu | |
| Robbie Williams | Sam Craigie | Wu Yize | |
| Fergal O’Brien | Hammad Miah | ||
| Ahmed Aly Elsayed | Stan Moody |
| Group 25 (July 8) | Group 26 (July 5) | Group 27 (June 30) | Group 28 (July 4) |
| Si Jiahui | Jak Jones | Jordan Brown | Anthony Hamilton |
| Mark Joyce | Jamie Jones | Julien Leclercq | Ben Mertens |
| Mohamed Ibrahim | Rebecca Kenna | Joshua Thomand | Ryan Thomerson |
| Haydon Pinhey | Dean Young | Barry Pinches | Xing Zihao |
| Group 29 (June 29) | Group 30 (June 26) | Group 31 (July 13) | Group 32 (July 3) |
| Thepchaiya Un-Nooh | Cao Yupeng | Xiao Guodong | |
| Lyu Haotian | Martin Gould | ||
| Daniel Wells | Ian Burns | Alexander Ursenbacher | |
| Steven Hallworth | Rory McLeod |
Featured photo credit: WST
