Si Jiahui Joins Elite Club With Second Career Maximum at Championship League
Perfect Break Opens Campaign for Chinese Potter
Si Jiahui produced the 243rd maximum break in snooker history on Tuesday, potting all 36 balls without error during his BetVictor Championship League group stage tie against fellow Chinese player Xu Yichen. The 147 — which arrived in the opening frame of a 3-0 victory — doubles Si's career tally of maximums and marks only the second perfect break of the 2025/26 season to date, according to data tracked by CueTracker.
Si's first maximum came at the 2024 Wuhan Open, making the 23-year-old one of a relatively select group of players to have compiled more than one competitive 147. The achievement is a significant statistical milestone: across more than four decades of recorded professional snooker history, fewer than 250 maximums have been ratified, underscoring just how rare a feat it remains even as the standard of break-building has risen sharply at the top of the game.
Group 6 Outcome: Fu Graduates Despite Si's Brilliance
Despite the drama of the maximum, Si ultimately finished as runner-up in Group 6 rather than topping the standings. The group was decided in the final match, with Marco Fu — the seven-time ranking event winner from Hong Kong — securing enough to claim top spot and advance to the second stage of the Championship League.
The sequence of results that shaped the group's outcome is worth unpacking. Si had drawn his opening match with Sean Maddocks 2-2, while Fu defeated Xu Yichen 3-0 and then accounted for Maddocks 3-1. Going into the final tie, Si needed to beat Fu convincingly, but having taken the opening frame, he found himself pegged back as Fu compiled two breaks of 80 to lead 2-1. The match eventually finished 2-2, which proved sufficient for Fu to graduate by virtue of his earlier results. Si, despite his maximum, exits the group stage at this juncture.
Cheng Ka Wai Dominant in Group 26
Elsewhere on Tuesday, it was a productive day for Hong Kong snooker more broadly. Cheng Ka Wai swept through Group 26 with an unbeaten hat-trick of victories, defeating Ashley Carty 3-1 before posting a 3-0 win over George Pragnell — his highest break of the day, a run of 111, coming in that encounter — and then rounding off proceedings with a further 3-0 dismissal of former world finalist Matthew Stevens. Cheng's composed display across all three matches earned him automatic progression to the second stage.
Statistical Context: The 147 in Numbers
The significance of Tuesday's maximum is best appreciated with some historical framing. The first ratified 147 in professional competition was compiled by Kirk Stevens at the 1984 British Open, and the milestone remained a genuine rarity for much of the subsequent decade. Ronnie O'Sullivan holds the record with 16 career maximums (source: CueTracker), a figure that dwarfs any other player in the game's history. Si's second career maximum places him in a growing but still modest cohort of players who have achieved the feat more than once at professional level.
At 243 recorded maximums across professional snooker history, the rate of occurrence has increased as the sport has expanded its calendar and its global player base — but it remains a statistically uncommon event. The Championship League, with its format of sustained frame-by-frame play across multiple group stage days, has historically provided fertile conditions for high-quality break-building, and Tuesday's maximum is consistent with that pattern.
Looking Ahead: Lisowski and Brecel in Action on Wednesday
Stage one of the BetVictor Championship League continues on Wednesday, with the penultimate day of group play scheduled to take place. Among the players set to compete are Jack Lisowski, the 2023 Tour Championship finalist, and world number two Luca Brecel, the 2023 World Champion. Both will be targeting group victories that would confirm their places in the second stage of the competition.
With the Championship League operating as a ranking event on the professional circuit (source: snooker.org), the points on offer carry real weight in terms of the end-of-season standings — adding an additional layer of consequence to results that might otherwise appear routine in a round-robin group format.
