Scott Donaldson reached the last eight of a ranking event for the first time in four years as he topped Group A in the second phase of the BetVictor Championship League.
Donaldson won the invitational version of this event in 2020 and his last deep run in a ranking event came in the same year as he reached the quarter-finals of the Northern Ireland Open. The former world number 22 has slipped to 51st in the rankings, but has made a promising start to the new campaign.
Breaks of 106 and 81 helped him beat Chris Wakelin 3-1 in his opening match today in Leicester, and he then saw off Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 3-0. The group was still in the balance as Fan Zhengyi could have leapfrogged Donaldson by winning the last match of the day, and he took the opening frame with a run of 68. But Donaldson levelled with a run of 54 then crucially won frame three with a 32 clearance. Fan took the last with a 73 to draw 2-2 but that was not enough.
Donaldson goes through to stage three next Wednesday (July 3) where the last eight players will be split into two groups of four, with the two group winners to contest the final. He will be joined by Ali Carter, who topped Group E.
Neil Robertson withdrew from the group, which meant that Carter, Jack Lisowski and Wu Yize played each other twice. Having started with a 2-2 draw against Wu, five-time ranking event winner Carter got going with a 3-1 win over Lisowski. A break of 130 helped him to secure another draw against Wu, then Carter clinched top spot by beating Lisowski 3-1 for a second time, his top break 120.
Stage two continues on Monday, for details click here.