Ali Carter received a Group 5 decider in opposition to Xing Zihao to guide his spot within the final 32 of the Championship League, the season’s first rating occasion.
After being held to a 2-2 draw in opposition to Joshua Thomond in Leicester, Carter displayed his trademark ranges of grit in a 3-1 win over Kreishh Gurbaxani earlier than defeating 19-year-old Xing 3-1 on Wednesday night time.
Breaks of 87 and 73 noticed Carter attain the final 32 of the competitors as he completed a degree forward of Xing, who solely wanted a draw after earlier overcoming Kreishh (3-0) and Thomond (3-0).
However a well timed snooker behind the black within the fourth body prompted three misses from Xing earlier than Carter slotted the match-winning pink to advance.
Former European Masters winner Fan Zhengyi additionally certified for the subsequent group stage with wins over Alfie Burden (3-0) and Zhou Yuelong (3-0) and a 2-2 draw with Mink Nutcharut in topping Group 16.
Fan produced breaks of 113 and 57 in opposition to Zhou to complete a degree away from Zhou.
In the meantime, 2005 world champion Shaun Murphy begins his title defence on the Mattioli Area on Thursday in opposition to Steven Hallworth, Reanne Evans and Tian Pengfei in Group 3, the ultimate day of the primary spherical.
Stage one consists of 32 teams of 4 gamers. The eight group winners contest an additional two teams with the winners assembly within the closing.
There may be £33,000 on the desk for the winner plus a spot within the Champion of Champions later within the yr which is value one other £12,500 for qualifying.
Championship League: Newest group winners
- Group 21: Neil Robertson (AUS)
- Group 11: Ryan Day (WAL)
- Group 4: Mark Williams (WAL)
- Group 17: Chris Wakelin (ENG)
- Group 25: Matthew Stevens (WAL)
- Group 31: Ashley Carty (ENG)
- Group 23: Michael White (WAL)
- Group 22: Joe O’Connor (ENG)
- Group 10: Jackson Web page (WAL)
- Group 32: Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (THA)
- Group 30: Jamie Jones (WAL)
- Group 29: Ben Woollaston (ENG)
- Group 8: Jak Jones (WAL)
- Group 7: Robbie McGuigan (NI)
- Group 24: Martin O’Donnell (Eng)
- Group 28: Wu Yize (CHN)
- Group 26: Alexander Ursenbacher (SUI)
- Group 27: David Lilley (ENG)
- Group 1: Scott Donaldson (SCO)
- Group 14: Hossein Vafaei (IRN)
- Group 18: Stuart Bingham (ENG)
- Group 13: Si Jiahui (CHN)
- Group 20: Stuart Carrington (ENG)
- Group 19: Lengthy Zehuang (CHN)
- Group 6: Gary Wilson (ENG)
- Group 9: Ma Hailong (CHN)
- Group 2: He Guoqiang (CHN)
- Group 12: Jack Lisowski (ENG)
- Group 5: Ali Carter (ENG)
- Group 16: Fan Zhengyi (CHN)
