Yesterday was the first of 2025 and snooker was on! Hangzhou is currently hosting the CBSA Snooker Superstars Invitational Tournament.

Two matches were played yesterday: Ronnie played Ding and Willo played John Higgins.

Ronnie won his match by 5-1. Ronnie played well again although there were a few mistakes and misses. It was typical exhibition snooker. Not much safeties, and some really daring shots.

The other match was much closer. John Higgins won it by 5-3. Willo lead by 62-0 in the last frame with 75 on the table, couldn’t get position, played a weak safety. Higgins stepped in and the rest is history.

Ronnie is due to play John Higgins today. It will be interesting to see what happens. They are due to face each other in the 2025 Masters opening match, ten days from now.

Here are some pictures of the ROS v Ding match, shared on various social media (mainly Weibo).

There is of course much more to be found in Kalacs comments as always.

Thank You Kalacs!

The invitational CLS starts on January 3, and will overlap with this event. Now this of course is a CBSA event, so, I guess, all authorisations have been granted and the players involved will not be in trouble.