Judd Trump is out of the Championship League already after failing to finish top of his group in Leicester on Tuesday.
The three-time former Championship League winner – albeit when the tournament was staged under a different format – could only muster one win and two draws from his three round-robin ties.
That left him on the same number of points as Jamie Clarke, who advanced from Group 2 with the same match record but a superior frame difference.
Clarke’s 3-0 victory over Sean O’Sullivan trumped the world number two’s 3-1 victory against the same opponent earlier in the day.
When Trump and Clarke crossed paths in the third and final fixture, the former needed a win to progress but Clarke held his own.
It was similarly close in Group 7 where Shaun Murphy was able to just hold off an excellent day’s performance by rookie Ben Mertens.
Murphy and Mertens shared the spoils from their clash against one another at the start of the day at the Morningside Arena.
While the young Belgian was then able to orchestrate a brace of 3-1 successes against Liam Highfield and Xu Si, Murphy went one better with two whitewash scorelines against the same opposition to advance on frame difference again.
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Both Murphy and Clarke will thus feature in Stage Two of the Championship League next week.
On Wednesday, the penultimate pair of Stage One groups take place with defending champion David Gilbert fronting Group 16 alongside Joe O’Connor, Zak Surety, and Florian Nuessle.
Jordan Brown is in action in Group 19 with Mark Davis, Jimmy White, and Ross Muir also involved.
Live coverage is available on FreeSports and Matchroom.Live in the UK and Ireland, and by various other means around the world.
Click here to view the draw (times: CET)
Featured photo credit: WST
