On January 8th, the third group of the Snooker Championship League kicked off its first day of competition, with Selby and Kyren Wilson facing off in a world champion showdown. The latest battle report shows that Selby quickly took control in the first game, securing a 1-0 lead over Jiong Ge with a decisive single shot victory, claiming his first win of the new year.
The Championship League is a famous short-format snooker tournament, with two stations played each season: one ranking event and one invitational event. This season, Carter won the ranking version of the Championship League title, defeating Jackson Page 3-1 in the final. The invitational version of the Championship League started in the new year and has already determined two winners' group seats, which are held by Iran's top player Vafie and Chinese youngster Si Jiahui.
The third group is filled with top talent, with newly added players Selby, Kyren Wilson, and O'Sullivan all being world champions. Among the remaining four players from the second group, Carter, Wakelin, and Milkins are all ranking event champions, and Jack Jones is also the new runner-up of the World Championship. Both Group 1 and Group 2 have reached the finals, and they even hit a single shot of 147 this morning, stunning the audience.
In tonight's match, Selby faced off against Carter, with the two having previously clashed 24 times, with the grinding control master achieving 16 victories. In the first game, Kyren Wilson scored 6 points first, followed by Selby scoring 8 points, but Jiong Ge was unable to score again. After a series of mistakes, Selby secured the victory with a single shot of 63 points, winning 71-6 and taking the lead, delivering a warning to the strongest post-90s player, and achieving a successful start in the best-of-five games.