Success For Carter And Pang
Ali Carter and Pang Junxu won their respective groups to reach Winners’ Week of the 2022 BetVictor Championship League Snooker at the Morningside Arena, Leicester live on FreeSports, DAZN, Viaplay, and Matchroom.Live around the world.
Carter was in imperious form, opening with a rapid 3-0 victory over Robbie McGuigan. The nearest competition for Carter came last season’s Rookie of the Year, Wu Yize, who started the day with a 3-1 victory over Louis Heathcote. The Chinese ace then drew 2-2 with McGuigan.
Into the evening session and Carter returned to dispatch Heathcote 3-0. The Captain knew he needed just a point against Wu in his last match of the day. The Essex man took the opening frame with a break of 70, before a fantastic 120 from Wu brought the pair level at 1-1. Carter’s efforts were rewarded in the third thanks to a break of 50 to take him over the line and secure top spot in the group. Wu took the last frame for 2-2 but it wasn’t enough.
Carter said: “I had two good performances early on today. It’s a long day. I felt a bit tired in the last match. What a great player Wu is. He hits the ball well. He’s just a kid running around potting everything. It’s pleasing to get through and it’s job done. It’s such a big event now. It’s the first event of the season, David Gilbert won it last year and it got him into everything. It’s a great opportunity to get the season off to a good start.”
Over on Table 2, Pang started with a 3-1 win over Reanne Evans, making breaks of 81 and 108. The Chinese cueman then saw off Dylan Emery by the same scoreline, firing runs of 136 and 137.
Heading into his last match against Ryan Day, Pang needed just a draw to top the group. He took the opening frame with a run of 53 then Day hit back to lead 2-1, leaving the fate of the group on the last frame of the day. And it was Pang who took it with an excellent break of 63 to secure the 2-2 draw he needed and seal his passage.
Group 11 headlines Table 1 on Monday, 18 July live on FreeSports, DAZN, Viaplay, and Matchroom.Live with Stuart Bingham, Cao Yupeng, Peter Lines and Peter Devlin. Group 14 is live on YouTube from midday with Hossein Vafaei, Tian Pengfei, Ng On Yee and Ryan Thomerson.