On the morning of July 6, Beijing time, the 2022-2023 World Snooker Champions League ended the competition between the 32nd group and the 15th group. Mainland player Xiao Guodong played steadily, winning three consecutive games in the 32nd group and breaking into the second stage as the top runner-up; Richie Wharton won the right to qualify for Group 15 with 2 wins and 1 loss, and Hong Kong's Lee Chun-wai finished at the bottom of the 1 win and 2 losses.
This season's Champions League is played in four stages. In the first stage, the players decided on 32 groups to qualify for the promotion; In the second stage, the top 32 players were divided into 8 groups to continue the single round-robin competition and determine the top 8 lineups; In the third stage, the quarterfinals were divided into two groups to compete in a single round robin again, and two players who reached the final were determined; The fourth stage is the final champion and runner-up PK.
In the previously concluded competition, Zhao Xintong, Lu Ning, O'Sullivan and others have stood out from the first stage and entered the top 32.
Xiao Guodong's 32nd group also includes Rod Laurrell, Scottish rising star Donaldson and Thai women's Wangharute. In the first game of the group, Xiao Guodong faced 50-year-old veteran Rod Laurell, and after being defeated by an opponent with a single 62 points in the first set, Xiao Guodong quickly made adjustments and successfully controlled the rhythm of the field, he played a single 103, 83 and 64 points in succession, and easily reversed 3-1 to win the opening red.
In the second match, Xiao Guodong played against the 22-year-old Wangharutai. The first set of the two sides was entangled in a fight, and the Thai women's women accumulated points piecemeal, 110-22 ahead of the next city. Xiao Guodong copied the process of winning the first game and quickly reversed the direction of the game, winning the second set with a single shot of 112 points, and the third and fourth sets were defeated by 90 points and 60 points respectively, and finally won two consecutive wins in the group 3-1.
At the end of the group, Xiao Guodong encountered Donaldson, a Scottish rising star ranked between 30 and 40 in the world, and the game was really more tangled than the previous two games, and the two sides did not have a 50+ consecutive score in the whole game, but Xiao Guodong as a whole seized more opportunities. In the first set, Xiao Guodong won 63-53; In the second set, Donaldson returned the favor 88-0; In the third set, Xiao Guodong won 103-14; In the fourth set, Xiao Guodong locked in the victory 68-0, won the game again with a score of 3-1, and finally won three consecutive wins to rank first in the group and advance to the second stage.
In the 15th group, Hong Kong's Lee Joon-wai beat Gerald Green 3-1, but lost 1-3 against Jackson Page and Rich Walton, and finally finished at the bottom of the group and did not pass the game. Rich Wharton topped the table with seven points from two wins and one loss.