The first group of the Champions League, Zhou Yuelong seals the king, doubles the German champion last year
On January 4, Beijing time, the 2018 Snooker Champions League ended the first group competition. Sichuan teenager Zhou Yuelong, now ranked 31st in the world, qualified for the second place in the group, and won the first group championship with two 3-2 even with Crane Day and Hamilton, becoming the first member to enter the winner group.
On the first day of the match, the 19-year-old Zhou Yuelong performed well and broke the 100 twice, ranking first in the group with four wins and three victories. Today, he continued his excellent state to the end. In the round-robin stage, he swept the 46-year-old England veteran Hamilton 3-0, the champion of last year’s German Masters. In the last game of the round robin, Zhou Yuelong’s momentum declined, losing 0-3 to Karen Wilson, but in the end Zhou Yuelong qualified with four wins and two losses, second in the group. The first in the group is Maguire ranked 18th in the world, Ryan Day ranked 17th in third, and Hamilton fourth.
The second stage is a single-elimination match. According to the rules, the first is against the fourth, and the second is against the third. In the semifinals, Zhou Yuelong split the field with 52 single shots. Ryan Day, who won the ranking trophy for the first time at the Riga Masters last year, replied with 60 and 54 points in a single stroke, overtook 2-1 and took the lead in winning the match point.
Zhou Yuelong performed calmly under the critical situation. After 73-39, the game was dragged into the decisive game and then 73-15, and the 37-year-old Welsh star was eliminated with a total score of 3-2. In the other semi-final, Hamilton shot two 80+, 3-2 lore Maguire, so the first group finals opened between Zhou Yuelong and Hamilton.
Looking back at the round robin earlier in the day, Zhou Yuelong swept it 3-0. When they met again, Zhou Yuelong looked confident and scored 72 points in the opening shot. Hamilton has won two consecutive games in a piecemeal manner and has taken the lead in winning the match point. Zhou Yuelong continued to take the lead, 72-66 dragged the game into a decisive game. Zhou Yuelong seized the key opportunity to seal the victory 94-13, with a total score of 3-2. In one day, he doubled the champion of last year’s German Masters, sealed the first team of the Champions League, and became the first member to enter the winner group. A bonus of £6200.
The Champions League is an invitational tournament, and its format is a unique “wheel battle”. There are seven teams and one winner’s team in the competition. There are 7 people in each group. The top four of the group round robin will enter the semi-finals, and the top of the group will enter the winner group through a single scoring. The last two of the round robin were eliminated. The runner-up and the two players who lost the semi-finals, as well as the fifth in the group, entered the next group and started a new round of duels with the newly added three until the end of the seven groups. In this way, the first group ended. Hamilton, who lost to Zhou Yuelong in the final, Maguire and Ryan Day, who lost in the semifinals, and Karen Wilson, who ranked fifth in the round robin, fell into the second group, with Mark King at the bottom. And Holt was eliminated. The three new members of the second group are World No. 1 Selby, Melbourne Machine Robertson, who just won his 13th career ranking title at the Scottish Open, and World No. 7 Hawkins. The second group of matches will start tonight in Beijing time.
