China’s He Guoqiang scored a superb 3-0 defeat of seven-time World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan to top Group Two of the BetVictor Championship League in Leicester.
He made a huge impact in his maiden season as a professional last term, winning the Rookie of the Year award. He appears to have carried his form into the new campaign after earning his progression to stage two at the Morningside Arena.
Breaks of 80, 57 and 77 saw He score that massive win over O’Sullivan in the last game of the group, which helped him leap from third position into top spot. The 23-year-old did lose out 3-1 in his opening match of the day to Mitchell Mann, but a 3-0 win over Kayden Brierley gave him the opportunity to clinch the group with his win over the Rocket.
O’Sullivan’s first outing of the season ends with an early exit. He had looked sharp in a 3-0 win over Brierley in his opening game, but let a 2-1 lead slip against Mitchell Mann in his second game to draw 2-2.
Group 12 saw six-time ranking event finalist Jack Lisowski get his campaign underway with a successful day, which saw him make the second stage. The Englishman was in fine form, top scoring with 138 in a 3-0 win over Ukrainian Anton Kazakov. He then crafted runs of 127 and 106 on his way to scoring a 3-1 defeat of Jiang Jun, before a 2-2 draw with Mark Davis secured top spot.
Coming into his last match, Ronnie only needed a draw to top the group. But he missed too many easy balls in that match and He Guoqiang played really well. He punished nearly every mistake Ronnie made heavily and had three breaks over 50, one in each of the three frames they played. Ronnie appeared tired and lacking focus by the end of the day and, if I’m honest, I’m not sure really how much, by the end of the day, he still wanted to come back on Friday. I know him well enough to know for sure that he doesn’t like it when he has to hang around at venues for hours and that’s what happens in this format. He played his first match at noon, and it was over in a blitz. Then he had to wait until 7 pm to play the next one and that was a hard fought affair. Ronnie missed a good opportunity to win 3-1 and then, with only three balls on the table, he fought for several minutes needing two snookers on the blue. It was in vain. Had he won that match, he would have gone to his last match already assured to top the group, no matter what. His next match was scheduled at 9 pm but it was nearly 10 pm when Mann and Brierley finished their match and the table became available again. Also, with nobody watching, there is no atmosphere. Those thing are inevitable but they certainly don’t suit Ronnie who isn’t particularly patient and gets bored easily. And this is not to excuse him, it’s the same for all the players and they all have to deal with it. It’s just to explain why the eventual outcome came to no surprise to me.
In the other group, Group 12, all credits to veteran Mark Davis who battled with all he had, managed to win the last two frames of the day and finished the group in second position. I didn’t watch anything of that group but I will do. Knowing that it was broadcast on Youtube, I knew that the opportunity to watch it later was there.
8 thoughts on “The 2024 Ranking CLS – Day 14 – He wins, Ronnie exits”
When you mentioned Ronnie O’Sullivan you said He wins but it seems he was knocked out. its very difficult to find out who emerges from the daily groups unless you use an abacus. The question I would ask about Ronnie is did he win or not? it’s a grey aria.
Maybe sobconsciously he thought that this tournament is not that important and the points you make apply, but my impression was that he didn’t saw it just as paid practice this time and wanted to win, even the last match. Yes, he missed some shots by some distance but looked frustrated after taking them and not disinterested.
Yes Christian, you are right, he looked frustrated. He’s always frustrated when missing easy shots. And he was probably furious with himself to have missed that last red in the last frame against Mann. Had he potted it, he would have won the group no matter what may happen in the last match.
Yes, it’s not considered a big tournament but it’s a shame that he couldn’t progress from this group. My theory is actually that his game was still on “exhibition mode”, the general skills were visible as always, but the accuracy wasn’t there, which I think I think can be lost during an exhibition series, where it’s more about entertainment.
Very strange was that Mann gave him so many chances on the blue and almost never tried to roll the ball over the pockets.
And He wasn’t super accurate as well but consistent. I heard the commentators mentioning that he is Under-18 World Champion.
He was under-18 World Champion. He’s 23 by now. He’s very good. He was rookie of the year last season. There were a lot of balls missed in the corner pockets all week. They seem to play slightly differently on Rasson tables than they do on Star tables. Of course all ROS exhibitions in China were played on Star tables (it’s a Chinese brand). And the academies in China would probably use Star tables as well.
He was under-18 World Champion
Yes, sorry, that’s what I meant of course. Not the current one but still one.
Yes exactly. I never thought it was important or that Ronnie would care, but he played proper snooker in the first and fought for the snookers in the second. He seemed to care. The last match was full of opportunities then mistakes and too many blues missed into the middle. Of course one would believe all this would even out in longer matches, but altogether it wasn’t fun to see and he certainly didn’t have a long break over the summer. 😏
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
When you mentioned Ronnie O’Sullivan you said He wins but it seems he was knocked out.
its very difficult to find out who emerges from the daily groups unless you use an abacus.
The question I would ask about Ronnie is did he win or not?
it’s a grey aria.
The name of the player who won is He … I can’t help that, can I?
Maybe sobconsciously he thought that this tournament is not that important and the points you make apply, but my impression was that he didn’t saw it just as paid practice this time and wanted to win, even the last match. Yes, he missed some shots by some distance but looked frustrated after taking them and not disinterested.
Yes Christian, you are right, he looked frustrated. He’s always frustrated when missing easy shots. And he was probably furious with himself to have missed that last red in the last frame against Mann. Had he potted it, he would have won the group no matter what may happen in the last match.
Yes, it’s not considered a big tournament but it’s a shame that he couldn’t progress from this group. My theory is actually that his game was still on “exhibition mode”, the general skills were visible as always, but the accuracy wasn’t there, which I think I think can be lost during an exhibition series, where it’s more about entertainment.
Very strange was that Mann gave him so many chances on the blue and almost never tried to roll the ball over the pockets.
And He wasn’t super accurate as well but consistent. I heard the commentators mentioning that he is Under-18 World Champion.
He was under-18 World Champion. He’s 23 by now. He’s very good. He was rookie of the year last season. There were a lot of balls missed in the corner pockets all week. They seem to play slightly differently on Rasson tables than they do on Star tables. Of course all ROS exhibitions in China were played on Star tables (it’s a Chinese brand). And the academies in China would probably use Star tables as well.
Yes, sorry, that’s what I meant of course. Not the current one but still one.
Yes exactly. I never thought it was important or that Ronnie would care, but he played proper snooker in the first and fought for the snookers in the second. He seemed to care. The last match was full of opportunities then mistakes and too many blues missed into the middle. Of course one would believe all this would even out in longer matches, but altogether it wasn’t fun to see and he certainly didn’t have a long break over the summer. 😏