Zhou Yuelong became the first player to qualify for the 2018 Championship League Snooker Winners’ Group as he fended off Anthony Hamilton to win Group One in Coventry. Now in its 11th season, the Championship League kicked off at the Ricoh Arena this week and will run until late March, serving as the perfect platform for fine-tuning leading into the World Championships in Sheffield in April.
Group One proved to be a real battleground in the short best-of-five frame format. Zhou, ranked 31st in the world, won four of his six matches in the round robin stage to qualify for the semi-finals. Wins over Ryan Day, Mark King, Michael Holt and Hamilton helped ensure a 3-0 loss to Kyren Wilson in his final tie was academic. Both Hamilton and Zhou had to scrap to make the decider. The Nottingham potter came out best in a deciding frame with Scotland’s Stephen Maguire, while the Chinese just managed to edge out Welshman Day for a second time on a 3-2 scoreline.
A break of 72 gave Zhou first blood in the decider but Hamilton battled back to take the next two frames 67-47 and 62-59 and go within one of winning the match. The German Masters champion was on course to do just that before he missed the final red in frame four, with Zhou sweeping in to mop up a clearance of 33 and set up a deciding frame. The teenager won a scrappy decider that lasted more than 36 minutes by 94-13 to put his name into the Winners’ Group for the Championship League Finals on March 28 and 29.
Championship League odds available at Dafabet.