Carter displays powers of recovery in unbeaten start to new season in Leicester

Ali Carter won a Group 5 decider against Xing Zihao to book his spot in the last 32 of the Championship League, the season’s first ranking event.

After being held to a 2-2 draw against Joshua Thomond in Leicester, Carter displayed his trademark levels of grit in a 3-1 win over Kreishh Gurbaxani before defeating 19-year-old Xing 3-1 on Wednesday night.

Breaks of 87 and 73 saw Carter reach the last 32 of the competition as he finished a point ahead of Xing, who only needed a draw after earlier overcoming Kreishh (3-0) and Thomond (3-0).

But a timely snooker behind the black in the fourth frame prompted three misses from Xing before Carter slotted the match-winning pink to advance.

Former European Masters winner Fan Zhengyi also qualified for the next group stage with wins over Alfie Burden (3-0) and Zhou Yuelong (3-0) and a 2-2 draw with Mink Nutcharut in topping Group 16.

Fan produced breaks of 113 and 57 against Zhou to finish a point clear of Zhou.

Meanwhile, 2005 world champion Shaun Murphy begins his title defence at the Mattioli Arena on Thursday against Steven Hallworth, Reanne Evans and Tian Pengfei in Group 3, the final day of the first round.

Stage one consists of 32 groups of four players. 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.