Donaldson In Control Of Group Five
Scott Donaldson has taken control of Group Five at the 2022 BetVictor Championship League Invitational at the Morningside Arena in Leicester.
Donaldson claimed the 2020 invitational title and won his opening two matches this time around. The Perth cueman scored 3-0 wins over both Martin Gould and Kyren Wilson to get off to the perfect start. Donaldson then defeated David Gilbert 3-1, including a break of 132, before losing out 3-2 to Jordan Brown.
Northern Ireland’s Brown ended his day having won two out of three, his other victory came courtesy of a 3-2 defeat of Lu Ning.
Ali Carter is set up well to move into tomorrow’s group playoffs after claiming two wins against Lu and Gilbert. However, he did lose out to Gould, who also picked up the points against Gilbert.
The group is tight throughout, with Wilson also sitting on two wins, having defeated Gould and Brown. Tamworth’s Gilbert is on one win from four, whilst Lu is yet to register a point.
Each of the seven players faces each other once in the round-robin group stage, after which the top four players in the league table progress to Saturday evening’s play-offs. The eventual group champion advances to February’s Winners’ Group with the remaining players who finished in the top five during the league phase continuing to Group Five which begins tomorrow when three new players join the tournament. The bottom two players in each group phase are eliminated. All matches are best of five.
The tournament carries a prize fund of £205,000 with players earning £100 per frame won with significant bonuses for their final group position and increased prize money in the Winners’ Group. A place in the 2022 Cazoo Champion of Champions is also on the line with each group featuring seven players with matches being held over two days.
Wilson will meet Lu in tomorrow’s opening clash from 11 am on FreeSports in the UK and Ireland as well as networks worldwide. Table 2 is available globally on Matchroom.Live excluding the Nordic and Baltic regions.
Where to WatchÂ
- Foxtel – Australia
- FreeSports – UK and Ireland
- Nova – Czech Republic & Slovakia
- NTV – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenia, and Uzbekistan
- Sky Network – New Zealand
- SuperSport – Africa
- Sportklub – Croatia & Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo, and Slovenia
- TVP – Poland
- Viaplay – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania
- Viaplay – Iceland
- Viaplay – Scandinavia
- Zhibo.TV – China
- Matchroom.Live – Table 1 is available exclusively to those outside of the countries listed above. Table 2 will be available live on Matchroom.Live excluding the Nordic and Baltic regions
- The tournament will also be live on betting websites around the world