Ronnie O'Sullivan skips event where he smashed cue, Judd Trump and Zhao Xintong also take breaks as Ali Carter defends Championship League title
By Desmond Kane
Updated 29/06/2025 at 15:50 GMT+1
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Ronnie O'Sullivan will not be appearing at the Championship League in Leicester, the event where he infamously smashed his cue into pieces back in January. The seven-time world champion is not alone in skipping the ranking tournament, with world No. 1 Judd Trump, world champion Zhao Xintong, Mark Williams, John Higgins and Mark Selby opting to enjoy summer breaks as Ali Carter defends the title.
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Ronnie O'Sullivan will not be returning to the ranking event version of this season's Championship League, the tournament that saw him infamously smash his cue into pieces in January.
The snooker GOAT is not alone in taking a break from the action at Mattioli Arena in Leicester over the next month, with the rest of the world's top eight - world No. 1 Judd Trump, Kyren Wilson, Mark Williams, John Higgins, Ding Junhui, Mark Selby and Neil Robertson - all opting out.
Selby won the invitational Championship League in his home city with a 3-0 final win over Wilson in February after O'Sullivan began a self-enforced four-month absence from the sport that saw him return armed with a new cue at the World Championship in April.
Despite struggling for consistency with his new cue, O'Sullivan produced a respectable effort in managing to reach the last four before losing 17-7 to winner Zhao in the semi-finals.
He is likely to return to action at next month's Shanghai Masters, where he will begin his quest for a sixth victory at the invitational event on July 30 against Barry Hawkins or Wu Yize.
Zhao is also missing from the Championship League a month after becoming China's first world champion with an 18-12 final win over Mark Williams.
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World No. 9 Hawkins is the highest-ranked player in the Championship League.
He will face John Astley, Haris Tahir and Haydon Pinhey in Group 1 on Monday, July 14.
Masters champion Shaun Murphy has also confirmed his participation and will take on Alfie Burden, Robbie McGuigan and Bulcsu Revesz in Group 3 on Tuesday.
Zhang Anda, Si Jiahui and Chris Wakelin are the other top-16 players to take their place on the starting grid, with six-time world finalist Jimmy White also competing.
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White, who defeated Anthony McGill 5-2 earlier this week to qualify for the Wuhan Open in August, faces Jackson Page, Jordan Brown and Liu Wenwei in Group 24 on July 15.
Defending champion Ali Carter, who defeated Page 3-1 in last year's final, begins his title defence in Group 6 on July 7 against Huang Jiahao, Jack Bradford and Liam Davies.
The two-table formats begin at 12pm BST on Monday with Stephen Maguire taking on James Cahill in Group 15, a section that also contains Michael Holt and Liam Graham.
Lyu Haotian, Jamie Jones, Hanyang Zhao and Yao Pengcheng compete in Group 26.
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The Championship League runs between June 30-July 23 with 32 groups of four producing 32 winners, who are then split into eight groups of four.
Two final groups of four will determine who contests the final on July 23, with the winner earning £33,000 and a place in the Champion of Champions event in Leicester in November.
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