Yesterday was the first of group 3 at the 2025 Invitational CLS, a very strong group with World Champion, Kyren Wilson, Mark Selby and Ronnie joining the field. It was not a good day for Ronnie at all. Right from the start he appeared to have issues with his tip and he lost his three first matches. Fortunately, he managed to win the last of the day to keep some sort of hope alive. That left him in fifth place in the group with two matches to play. The two players behind him still have three matches to play… so, it’s far from great!
Having said all that, Ronnie in the past has often played in just one group and then withdrew. That usually happened ahead of an important event. He wanted to play in order to get quality practice. He wasn’t interested in the CLS itself.
Anyway… here is the report shared by WST
PERFECT START FOR SELBY IN GROUP THREE
Mark Selby scored four wins out of four – and made six centuries – on the opening day of BetVictor Championship League Snooker Invitational Group Three to top the table.
The winner of the group on Thursday night will go through to the Winners’ Group in February. It’s a strong line up but defending champion Selby shone throughout Wednesday’s play with a quartet of fine wins.
He opened with a 3-1 victory over World Champion Kyren Wilson, making breaks of 63, 120 and 100. Selby then beat Robert Milkins 3-1, before coming from 2-1 down to edge out Ronnie O’Sullivan 3-2, firing runs of 120 and 140 in the last two frames. The four-time Crucible king wrapped up with a 3-1 win over Ali Carter, firing 107 and 127 to take his tally of centuries for the day to six.
Wilson, Carter and Chris Wakelin all scored two wins apiece to stay in the hunt.
The frustrating thing is that Ronnie didn’t actually played that badly. David Hendon reflected on that in commentary and he is the only one who, yesterday, ran mark Selby close. He played 19 frames yesterday, more than anyone else. The most he could have played on the day , win or lose, is 20.
David also reflected that it’s been a bit of a pattern the season: Ronnie playing decent snooker and going out in an early round to an inspired opponent.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 