The draw for the Champion of Champions has just been made and here it is:
There are no easy draws in this one of course. Neil Robertson, the defending champion has probably the easiest first match, but, should he win it, will face a serious challenge in the QF, with John Higgins or Ding Junhui waiting.
Ronnie hasn’t a too bad draw, but will need to be sharper than he was in his first two events if he wants to go deep in the tournament. He plays on the last day of the Group stage, hence minimising his stay in the “bubble”.
Here are more details about group 2, as published on the event site
CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS DRAW MADE WITH ROBERTSON TO FACE WHITE IN TOURNAMENT OPENER
The draw for the 2020 Champion of Champions has been made, with defending champion Neil Robertson set to get the tournament underway against Jimmy White on Monday, November 2, live on ITV4 from Marshall Arena, Milton Keynes.
Monday’s group will also see former Champion of Champions winner John Higgins face UK Championship winner Ding Junhui, while reigning World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan begins his attempt to win a fourth Champion of Champions title against Michael Holt on Wednesday.
The event begins with a quarter of four-man groups, with one group played each day from Monday until Thursday. The afternoon sessions feature two best-of-seven Group Semi-Finals, before the best-of-11 Group Final in the evening session. The tournament carries a £440,000 prize fund with £150,000 going to the winner.
Players were split into three seeding pools for the draw, based on their current WST World Ranking, with players in Pool One automatically allocated to the group which corresponds with their seeding. Robertson is the defending Champion of Champions and will take his place in Group 1 on Monday as the tournament’s No.1 seed. World No.1 Judd Trump will be in Group 2, with World Champion O’Sullivan in Group 3 and World No.4 Mark Selby in Group 4.
One player from Pool Two (Mark Allen, Kyren Wilson, Shaun Murphy and John Higgins), was drawn at random into each group. The remaining eight players were placed into Pool Three, with two players from that pool drawn into each group.
Judd Trump and Shaun Murphy are the seeded players in Group 2, where they will be joined by Stuart Bingham and the winner of this week’s Championship League Snooker. Group 2 fixtures will be confirmed on Friday night, with the highest ranked non-seed to face Murphy, and the lower ranked player to face Trump. Should the Championship League Snooker yield a repeat winner, David Gilbert will take the remaining place in the Champion of Champions as the highest ranked player not to have qualified already.
Wednesday’s action sees Mark Selby face Luca Brecel before Kyren Wilson plays Stephen Maguire in Group 4.
Group action concludes on Thursday with three-time Champion of Champions Ronnie O’Sullivan facing Michael Holt and Mark Allen against Scott Donaldson.
CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS DRAW & SCHEDULE
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2 | GROUP 1
1pm | Group Semi-finals (best of 7)
Neil Robertson v Jimmy White
John Higgins v Ding Junhui7pm | Group Final (best of 11)
Winner v Winner
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3 | GROUP 2
1pm | Group Semi-finals (best of 7)
Judd Trump v Stuart Bingham/CLS Winner
Shaun Murphy v Stuart Bingham/CLS Winner7pm | Group Final (best of 11)
Winner v Winner
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4 | GROUP 4
1pm | Group Semi-finals (best of 7)
Mark Selby v Luca Brecel
Kyren Wilson v Stephen Maguire7pm | Semi-Finals (best of 11)
Winner v Winner
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5 | GROUP 3
1pm | Group Semi-finals (best of 7)
Ronnie O’Sullivan v Michael Holt
Mark Allen v Scott Donaldson7pm | Semi-Finals (best of 11)
Winner v Winner
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6
7pm | Semi-Final 1 (best of 11)
Group 1 Winner v Group 4 Winner
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8
7pm | Semi-Final 1 (best of 11)
Group 2 Winner v Group 3 Winner
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 9
The Final (Best of 19)
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Yes, Csilla have right. CLS-winner, Allen, Higgins…why declared this draw?
(John ‘ranking’ Higgins : ))
I wonder if Ronnie will practice more for this event than he seems to have for his previous 2.
By the way: #2 in the world Ronnie and #1 in the world Judd have been in the same side of the draw in each of Ronnie’s 3 events so far this year…
The seeding is completely normal.I Usually, the defending champion is seeded 1, the World Champion seeded 2 and the rest according to rankings. So Unless one of them is the defending champion, or the usual seeding doesn’t apply for some reason, Ronnie and Judd will be seeded 2 and 3, in the same half.
As for Ronnie’s practice, I’m not sure that he didn’t practice enough for the previous tournaments, but practice doesn’t make you match sharp. Also, from what I understood, practice opportunities at the venue were very limited. Ronnie likes to have a 20 minutes or so at the table to loosen up just before the match. Hopefully, with a limited number of players, that won;t be an issue at the Champion of Champions.
Of course, they scheduled him to stay in the bubble as little as possible. I felt it obvious they would make everything to ensure he participates.
And if the CLS-winner is already someone who qualified? Then the next in ranking? They should have indicated it.