Carter displays powers of recovery in unbeaten start to new season in Leicester

‘That’s brilliant’ – Carter hits great shot to pot the black from tough position

Ali Carter won a Group 5 decider against Xing Zihao to book his spot in the last 32 of the Championship League, the season’s first ranking event.

After being held to a 2-2 draw against Joshua Thomond in Leicester, Carter displayed his trademark levels of grit in a 3-1 win over Kreishh Gurbaxani before defeating 19-year-old Xing 3-1 on Wednesday night.

Breaks of 87 and 73 saw Carter reach the last 32 of the competition as he finished a point ahead of Xing, who only needed a draw after earlier overcoming Kreishh (3-0) and Thomond (3-0).

But a timely snooker behind the black in the fourth frame prompted three misses from Xing before Carter slotted the match-winning pink to advance.

Former European Masters winner Fan Zhengyi also qualified for the next group stage with wins over Alfie Burden (3-0) and Zhou Yuelong (3-0) and a 2-2 draw with Mink Nutcharut in topping Group 16.

Fan produced breaks of 113 and 57 against Zhou to finish a point clear of Zhou.

Meanwhile, 2005 world champion Shaun Murphy begins his title defence at the Mattioli Arena on Thursday against Steven Hallworth, Reanne Evans and Tian Pengfei in Group 3, the final day of the first round.

Stage one consists of 32 groups of four players. The eight group winners contest a further two groups with the winners meeting in the final.

There is £33,000 on the table for the winner plus a spot in the Champion of Champions later in the year which is worth another £12,500 for qualifying.

Championship League: Latest group winners

Group 21: Neil Robertson (AUS)Group 11: Ryan Day (WAL)Group 4: Mark Williams (WAL)Group 17: Chris Wakelin (ENG)Group 25: Matthew Stevens (WAL)Group 31: Ashley Carty (ENG)Group 23: Michael White (WAL)Group 22: Joe O’Connor (ENG)Group 10: Jackson Page (WAL)Group 32: Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (THA)Group 30: Jamie Jones (WAL)Group 29: Ben Woollaston (ENG)Group 8: Jak Jones (WAL)Group 7: Robbie McGuigan (NI)Group 24: Martin O’Donnell (Eng)Group 28: Wu Yize (CHN)Group 26: Alexander Ursenbacher (SUI)Group 27: David Lilley (ENG)Group 1: Scott Donaldson (SCO)Group 14: Hossein Vafaei (IRN)Group 18: Stuart Bingham (ENG)Group 13: Si Jiahui (CHN)Group 20: Stuart Carrington (ENG)Group 19: Long Zehuang (CHN)Group 6: Gary Wilson (ENG)Group 9: Ma Hailong (CHN)Group 2: He Guoqiang (CHN)Group 12: Jack Lisowski (ENG)Group 5: Ali Carter (ENG)Group 16: Fan Zhengyi (CHN)discovery+ is the streaming home of the Olympic Games, and the only place you can watch every moment of Paris 2024 this summer