Ali Carter and Ryan Day moved into Finals Day of the BetVictor Championship League Snooker at the Morningside Arena, Leicester on the second day of stage two.
Carter previously spoke of his ambitions of getting back into the world’s top 16 and he did them no harm with his performances in Group E against Shaun Murphy, Graeme Dott, and Gerard Greene.
The Captain started out with a 3-1 win over Dott in a hardy battle that was underlined in the opening frame where Carter left Dott in a brutal snooker. A snooker that proved to be the first of many from Carter.
Carter got into the second stage after winning two of his three matches and he went one better today laying the vital blow against Murphy to win 3-1 meaning he needed just a point against Greene to qualify.
He went on to win three from three after dismantling Greene 3-1 for his best result of the day: “I’ve been working hard back home and trying to do the right things. I’ve come here today, and it’s paid off. I knew it was going to be a tough group obviously Shaun and Graeme are both former world champions, I knew I had work to do.”
“There are all tough players/matches. It’s great to be involved, it’s a great tournament. I’m really enjoying it, If I can turn up on Friday and enjoy it again, I’ll be happy.”
Day is a Championship League Snooker stalwart but is still hunting for his first CLS title. The Welshman moved that one step closer going unbeaten against Stuart Bingham, Alexander Ursenbacher, and Ashley Hugill to top Group F.
The Snooker Shoot-Out winner took an opening draw against Ursenbacher after going 2-1 down meaning he went into the evening with only one point to his name.
Bingham meanwhile had won his first two 3-1 and 3-0 respectively against Ursenbacher and Hugill to be in prime position to top the group.
Day began the evening beating Hugill 3-1 from 1-0 to set up a showdown for a spot in Finals Day against Bingham in the next match.
It was comprehensive in the end for Day who cleaned up 3-0 with his best break of the day coming in the second (74) to top the group with nine points.
Day: “I wasn’t at the races at all in the first game. Salvaging a point, in the end, proved to be key in the end.”
On beating Bingham: “It was certainly the best I played all day. Going into the second match against Hugill I knew I needed to win. Against Stuart, it felt like a bit of a normal setup with a knockout situation. It was the best I felt and best I played all day.”
“One big push on Friday, somebody is obviously going to walk away with a trophy and quite the boost going into the new season. Somebody is going to potentially get into the Grand Prix and Players Championship potentially.”
Carter and Day join yesterday’s group winners of Cao Yupeng, and David Gilbert to complete the first group of Finals Day.
Kyren Wilson continues his title defence in Group D against Matthew Stevens, Ken Doherty, and Oliver Lines tomorrow on Table 1, from 12 noon (UK time), and is live on FreeSports TV (UK), DAZN, Zhibo.tv (China), and Viaplay.
Table 2 action is available globally at Matchroom.Live where Group C will unfold with Mark Davis, Bai Langning, David Lilley, and Noppon Saengkham. Full broadcast details can be found at https://championshipleaguesnooker.co.uk/watch/
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