Champion of Champions Snooker 2020 Day Four preview and order of play: Rocket launches title quest

Jamie Shaw in Champion of Champions 5 November 2020

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Five-star Judd Trump reaches Champion of Champions Semi-Finals

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Mark Allen overcomes Ronnie O’Sullivan in ill-tempered Champion of Champions clash

O’Sullivan aims to secure a fifth Welsh Open crown (Photo by China Images/PA)

Ronnie O’Sullivan begins his bid for a fourth Champion of Champions title in Group Three in Milton Keynes on Thursday.

The final remaining Semi-Final spot is up for grabs as a further four tournament winners from the past year vie to join Neil Robertson, Judd Trump and Mark Selby in the latter stages.

O’Sullivan is the most successful player in the seven-year history of this tournament, having claimed glory on three occasions and finished runner-up on a further two.

The Rocket enters this year’s elite invitational as the reigning World Champion and is looking to kick-start his season after an underwhelming start.

The 44-year-old suffered a shock Second Round defeat to 18-year-old rookie Aaron Hill in September’s European Masters before bowing out in the Third Round of the English Open to Matthew Stevens.

O’Sullivan starts out against reigning Shoot-Out champion Michael Holt – a stalwart professional since 1998 who is making his Champion of Champions debut.

Holt’s Shoot-Out success handed him a first career ranking title after more than two decades of trying and he is now looking to continue his impressive recent record against The Rocket.

Holt has won four of their nine previous meetings, including each of their last three – all of which came in 2016.

The second group Semi-Final sees Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen take on Scotland’s Scott Donaldson.

Allen qualified for this event as the highest ranked non-automatic qualifier and will be keen to prove he is not here just to make up the numbers.

The former Masters Champion has won his group in his last four consecutive appearances in this event, finishing runner-up in 2015 before three straight Semi-Final defeats.

The Antrim ace has won all five of his previous meetings with Donaldson, most recently a 5-1 rout in the Quarter-Finals of last December’s Scottish Open.

Donaldson is making his debut in this prestigious competition by virtue of his Championship League triumph back in March, having also reached two ranking Semi-Finals during his impressive rise up the rankings.

He is also looking to kick-start his season after two Second Round defeats and a First Round exit in his three tournament appearances so far.

The action gets underway from 1pm GMT, with Group Semi-Finals to be contested over the best of seven frames and the group final played over the best of 11.

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