Jack Lisowski and Luca Brecel emerged from Stage One of Championship League Snooker with perfect records on Wednesday in Leicester.
Lisowski topped Group 7 with a hat-trick of victories against Jack Bradford, Zhao Hanyang, and Liam Highfield.
With so many star names absent from the draw, the world number 17 is one of the highest-ranked players in this season’s ranking edition of the Championship League.
Lisowski broke his duck in ranking events last season with a memorable victory at the Northern Ireland Open, and he later reached the final of the Welsh Open as well.
Yet the 2025/26 campaign ended poorly with a failure to qualify for the World Championship, so the 35 year-old will be hoping to reestablish consistency at the beginning of this term – especially with a return to the top 16 on the cards.
Brecel, meanwhile, secured some much-needed ranking points with his trio of triumphs over Mitchell Mann, Deng Haohui, and Aaron Hill in Group 31.
The Belgian, a world champion as recently as 2023, has plummeted way down the rankings lately after a terrible period of form.
In fact, Brecel is way down at number 64 on the provisional end-of-year standings and just within the cut-off point for tour survival as things stand.
Doing well in the Championship League, which Brecel won in 2022, may not do much to directly impact his ranking status given the relatively low prize fund on offer, but the confidence gained from a few wins could prove important.
The lineup for Stage Two and the last 32 is almost complete, with the winners of just two more groups from Stage One to be determined.
Those take place on Thursday, as pre-tournament favourite Zhao Xintong finally enters the fray in Group 1 alongside David Grace, Gao Yang, and Simon Blackwell.
Elsewhere, Zak Surety has Matthew Selt, Andrew Higginson, and Gong Chengzhi for company in Group 32.
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.
Wednesday, July 8
Group 7 Results
Jack Lisowski 3-0 Jack Bradford
Liam Highfield 3-1 Zhao Hanyang
Liam Highfield 3-1 Jack Bradford
Jack Lisowski 3-0 Zhao Hanyang
Zhao Hanyang 3-0 Jack Bradford
Jack Lisowski 3-1 Liam Highfield
Group 7 Table
1. Jack Lisowski – 9 points
2. Liam Highfield – 6 points
3. Zhao Hanyang – 3 points
4. Jack Bradford – 0 points
Click here for more information about the tournament.
Group 31 Results
Luca Brecel 3-0 Mitchell Mann
Deng Haohui 3-1 Aaron Hill
Luca Brecel 3-0 Deng Haohui
Aaron Hill 3-1 Mitchell Mann
Mitchell Mann 3-1 Deng Haohui
Luca Brecel 3-1 Aaron Hill
Group 31 Table
1. Luca Brecel – 9 points
2. Aaron Hill – 3 points
3. Mitchell Mann – 3 points
4. Deng Haohui – 3 points
Featured photo credit: WST
