Elliot Slessor and Jimmy Robertson became the latest pair to emerge from Stage One of Championship League Snooker on Tuesday.
The English duo won their respective groups at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester to continue their runs in the season-opening ranking event.
Slessor, who is the ninth seed in the competition considering there are only a few top 16 players involved, topped his group with an undefeated record of two wins and a draw.
The 31 year-old has been knocking on the door of a proper breakthrough in recent seasons, extending his tally of ranking event semi-final appearances to five.
Slessor will be hoping to break his duck during the 2026/27 campaign, and his Championship League outing got off to a strong start with wins over Robert Milkins and Liam Pullen sandwiching a draw with Liu Wenwei.
In Group 23, meanwhile, Robertson finished at the summit after a closely fought round-robin phase that saw the top three separated by just a single point.
The former European Masters champion could only draw his opening couple of matches against Hammad Miah and Antoni Kowalski.
That seemed to put him on the back foot, but a comprehensive 3-0 defeat of Martin O’Donnell at the end of the day saw him leapfrog the latter into first place.
A total of 16 players have now made it through to Stage Two, but another 16 group winners from Stage One must still be determined.
The action in Leicester continues on Wednesday with Chris Wakelin headlining Group 5 alongside Yao Pengcheng, Luke Pinches, and Brian Ochoiski.
Wakelin will be the obvious favourite there, but Yao is coming into this tournament on a hot run of form having won all six of his early-term qualifying fixtures from last month.
Elsewhere, Lei Peifan has Ishpreet Singh Chadha, Chatchapong Nasa, and Wang Xinbo for company in Group 16.
Championship League Snooker represents the opening ranking event of the fledgling 2026/27 snooker season.
The overall winner on July 15th will take home £33,000 worth of prize money and ranking points, plus a ticket to the lucrative Champion of Champions invitational later this year.
Live coverage is available for Ireland and UK viewers on the Matchroom Multi Sport and Matchroom Pool YouTube channels.
Tuesday, June 30
Group 9 Results
Elliot Slessor 3-1 Robert Milkins
Liam Pullen 2-2 Liu Wenwei
Liam Pullen 3-1 Robert Milkins
Elliot Slessor 2-2 Liu Wenwei
Liu Wenwei 3-0 Robert Milkins
Elliot Slessor 3-0 Liam Pullen
Group 9 Table
1. Elliot Slessor – 7 points
2. Liu Wenwei – 5 points
3. Liam Pullen – 4 points
4. Robert Milkins – 0 points
Click here for more information about the tournament.
Group 23 Results
Jimmy Robertson 2-2 Hammad Miah
Martin O’Donnell 3-0 Antoni Kowalski
Martin O’Donnell 2-2 Hammad Miah
Jimmy Robertson 2-2 Antoni Kowalski
Antoni Kowalski 3-0 Hammad Miah
Jimmy Robertson 3-0 Martin O’Donnell
Group 23 Table
1. Jimmy Robertson – 5 points
2. Martin O’Donnell – 4 points
3. Antoni Kowalski – 4 points
4. Hammad Miah – 2 points
Featured photo credit: WST
3 defeats out of 3 :
Milkins’ downfall seems to have no end.
While he was world number 17 just two years ago…
What’s happened ?