Ben Woollaston and Xiao Guodong both made it through to phase two of the BetVictor Championship League Snooker – Ranking Edition with fine performances at the Morningside Arena in Leicester on Monday.
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In Group 32, China’s Xiao opened with a 2-2 draw against Rory McLeod, and in his second match against Alexander Ursenbacher he was 1-0 behind, but hit back with breaks of 101, 123 and 50 to win 3-1. Xiao then rounded off his day with a 3-0 success against Martin Gould and he’ll be back for the next phase later this month.
Woollaston opened Group 16 with a comfortable 3-0 defeat of Liam Graham, highlighted by a break of 96 in frame three, and he was equally dominant in a 3-0 win over Peter Lines. The Leicester cueman still needed to avoid a 3-0 defeat in his last match of the day against Jimmy Robertson, and he was in danger at 2-0 down, but Woollaston crucially took frame three on the colours and added the fourth with a break of 73 for good measure to leave the result at 2-2.
The BetVictor Championship League is the first ranking event of the season and carries total prize money of £328,000. The eventual winner on July 21 will earn a place in the prestigious Champion of Champions event in Bolton from November 13-19.
Among the players in action this week are 2015 world champion Stuart Bingham, last season’s German Masters winner Ali Carter and reigning Welsh Open champion Robert Milkins.