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Snooker

World champion Kyren Wilson stunned by Scott Donaldson at Championship League snooker

ByTNT Sports

Updated 20/06/2024 at 23:29 GMT+1

Kyren Wilson finished his opening day of the new snooker season unbeaten at the Championship League in Leicester, but it was not enough to see the new world champion advance to the last 32. Scotland's Scott Donaldson produced some fine scoring form to edge out Wilson by two points in Group 1 at the Mattioli Arena while Iran's leading player Hossein Vafaei progressed as Group 14 winner.

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Video credit: TNT Sports

World champion Kyren Wilson was dumped out of the Championship League at the first group stage as world No. 51 Scott Donaldson earned a 2-2 draw to top Group 1 in Leicester.

Scotsman Donaldson secured the point he needed against Wilson at the season's first ranking event with breaks of 88 and 101 cancelling out an opening 79 from the Kettering player, who won the fourth frame with a knock of 111 to finish two points behind the group winner.

Wilson had earlier drawn 2-2 with Daniel Womersley before defeating Baipat Siripaporn 3-0, with Donaldson easing past Baipat 3-0 and Womersley 3-1 to leave himself chasing a draw to progress.

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Wilson - who defeated Jak Jones 18-14 to lift his first world title last month - returns to action at the Shanghai Masters next month (July 15-21) with the rest of the world's top 16 in action.

But Iran's leading player Hossein Vafaei had no such trouble as he secured three straight wins over Josh Mulholland (3-0), Manasawin Phetmalaikul (3-1) and Louis Heathcote (3-0) to qualify for the second group phase.

Former world champion Stuart Bingham is in action on Friday in Group 18, with former Crucible semi-finalist Si Jiahui taking to the table in Group 13.

Stage one consists of 32 groups of four players before the 32 group winners split into eight further groups. 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.