Championship League: Former world champions Neil Robertson and Graeme Dott to kick off 2023/24 snooker season

Former world champions Neil Robertson and Graeme Dott have the honour of breaking off the new 2023/24 snooker season at the Championship League on Monday in Leicester. Robertson – who denied Dott a second world title with an 18-13 win in the 2010 Crucible final – meets Ashley Carty in his Group 3 opener at 12:00 UK time in a section that also contains Liam Highfield and Adam Duffy. Ad It will be Robertson's first competitive match since he lost 13-7 to Jak Jones in the last 16 of the World Championship in April.

English OpenTop 10 moments of 2022/23: No. 4 – Williams sets maximum record in modern-day classicYESTERDAY AT 12:14 Dott, the 2006 world champion, opens against former Welsh Open finalist Andrew Higginson in Group 30 with David Grace and Daniel Wells the other men aiming to progress to the last 32 group phase next month. There are 32 groups of four at the Championship League, with the winner of each group progressing to the second stage which, will contain a further eight groups of four, before two final groups of four compete to reach the semi-finals and final.

World No. 1 Ronnie O'Sullivan will return to action on Monday July 10 and has been drawn in Group 1 alongside Scott Donaldson, Rod Lawler and Alfie Burden, who was successful in regaining a fresh two-year tour card at Q School earlier this month. Three-time world champion Mark Williams faces Dylan Emery, Ken Doherty and Thor Chuan Leong in Group 6 on Friday June 30, while Masters winner Judd Trump meets Jimmy White, Reanne Evans and Xu Si in Group 2 on Tuesday July 11.