Mark Williams began his quest for a 27th career ranking title victory with two stunning centuries on the final day of the Championship League in Leicester.
The three-time world champion produced breaks of 139 and 112 to move 2-0 ahead of Martin O’Donnell before wrapping up a rapid win by dominating the third frame against the Welsh Open finalist, who was restricted to only 22 points.
World No. 9 Williams claimed the British Open and Tour Championship titles last season, but is bidding to win the Championship League for the first time in his 32-year professional career having lost 3-0 to Shaun Murphy in last year’s final.
Williams, O’Donnell, Ali Carter and Scott Donaldson are in Group 1 of the final group phase on Wednesday with Jackson Page, David Lilley, Long Zehuang and David Gilbert in Group 2.
The winners of the two groups will meet in the final of the season’s first ranking event at the city’s Mattioli Arena on Wednesday night.
Stage one consisted of 32 groups of four players with the eight group winners reaching the final two groups.
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.
Championship League: Last-32 group winners
- Group B: David Gilbert (ENG)
- Group C: Long Zehuang (CHN)
- Group E: Ali Carter (ENG)
- Group A: Scott Donaldson (SCO)
- Group D: Mark Williams (WAL)
- Group H: Martin O’Donnell (ENG)
- Group G: Jackson Page (WAL)
- Group F: David Lilley (ENG)
Championship League: First-stage group winners
- Group 21: Neil Robertson (AUS)
- Group 11: Ryan Day (WAL)
- Group 4: Mark Williams (WAL)
- Group 17: Chris Wakelin (ENG)
- Group 25: Matthew Stevens (WAL)
- Group 31: Ashley Carty (ENG)
- Group 23: Michael White (WAL)
- Group 22: Joe O’Connor (ENG)
- Group 10: Jackson Page (WAL)
- Group 32: Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (THA)
- Group 30: Jamie Jones (WAL)
- Group 29: Ben Woollaston (ENG)
- Group 8: Jak Jones (WAL)
- Group 7: Robbie McGuigan (NI)
- Group 24: Martin O’Donnell (Eng)
- Group 28: Wu Yize (CHN)
- Group 26: Alexander Ursenbacher (SUI)
- Group 27: David Lilley (ENG)
- Group 1: Scott Donaldson (SCO)
- Group 14: Hossein Vafaei (IRN)
- Group 18: Stuart Bingham (ENG)
- Group 13: Si Jiahui (CHN)
- Group 20: Stuart Carrington (ENG)
- Group 19: Long Zehuang (CHN)
- Group 6: Gary Wilson (ENG)
- Group 9: Ma Hailong (CHN)
- Group 2: He Guoqiang (CHN)
- Group 12: Jack Lisowski (ENG)
- Group 5: Ali Carter (ENG)
- Group 16: Fan Zhengyi (CHN)
- Group 3: Shaun Murphy (ENG)
- Group 15: David Gilbert (ENG)