Both groups in action yesterday were won by the top seed. Here is the report by WST:

Si Jiahui notched three wins out of three as he topped Group 13 and booked his place in the second stage of the BetVictor Championship League in Leicester.

China’s Si was a Crucible semi-finalist in 2023 then reached his first ranking final last season at the German Masters and is looking to continue his rapid progress.  

He started his season with a 3-0 win over Peter Lines then saw off Zak Surety 3-0 with a top break of 82, before securing top spot with a 3-1 defeat of Jimmy Robertson.

Former World Champion Stuart Bingham also made it through the day unbeaten, scoring two wins and a draw to advance from Group 18. He let slip a 2-0 lead against Hamim Hussain, finishing 2-2, but then beat Aly Ahmed Elsayed 3-0 with a top break of 110 and Anthony Hamilton 3-1.

Results / Fixtures

Yesterday evening I managed to watch a bit of the action… yeah! Si Jiahui was far from faultless in beating Jimmy Robertson who looked quite “rusty” to say the least. Then I saw the last frame and a half between Bingham and the Sheriff … they both appeared to be in great spirit, laughing and joking. You would have thought they were playing in an exhibition rather than in a ranking event. Ballrun had … some run of the balls.

As for the news about the end of the Eurosport App … I’m obviously not the only one feeling mightily annoyed and angry.