The Masters champion got his 2021/22 campaign off to a strong start.
Yan Bingtao won all three of his round-robin fixtures to top Group 25 of the Championship League on Tuesday at the Morningside Arena in Leicester.
The Chinese competitor began the day with a comfortable 3-0 victory over amateur Robbie McGuigan – compiling breaks of 77 and 94.
Later on Yan added to his tally with 3-1 triumphs against Louis Heathcote and Jamie Clarke that featured a century in each.
Matthew Selt was the winner of a much closer Group 27, the former Indian Open champion placing in first place despite only accumulating five points in total.
Selt drew both of his opening games against Fraser Patrick and Lukas Kleckers, and his final 3-1 defeat of Ashley Carty proved to be enough to see him through at the expense of the latter.
Yan Bingtao and Matthew Selt will next feature in Stage Two of the Championship League group stage which takes place next week.
On Wednesday, Stage One continues with Group 17 that includes recent World Championship finalist Shaun Murphy, Jamie Jones, Chen Zifan, and amateur Michael Collumb.
Murphy, the World Championship finalist from May, will be expected to challenge for glory in this competition and the live odds today have him as the group favourite.
Group 15 takes place as well with Matthew Stevens, Mark King, Andrew Pagett, and amateur Ross Muir set to participate.
What is the Championship League?
The Championship League has been on the calendar in some way, shape, or form since 2008, but it’s only in the last couple of years that it has been intermittently staged as a ranking event.
On this occasion, there are three stages to the month-long competition with 128 players initially split into 32 round-robin groups comprising four players in each.
The 32 group winners advance to Stage Two, before the next eight group winners determine the competitors who feature in Stage Three, with all matches lasting just four frames.
The two players who win their third and final groups will subsequently contest the outright final, with the winner set to earn £33,000 from the total prize fund.
Where to Watch the Championship League
There will be two tables available to watch on each day of the group stages, with the snooker available across Ireland and the UK on FreeSports in addition to the Matchroom.Live’s snooker streaming service.
There are various other TV broadcast options around the world, which you can view by clicking here.
Click here to view the full draw (Times: CET)
Featured photo credit: WST
Couldn’t agree more with your tweet about the Championship League being dull. We’ve had about 5 editions in less than two years, if you include the very similar Pro Series. I’ve thankfully had other sport to watch.