Kyren Wilson showed no signs of fatigue after coming straight to Essex from Gdynia where he made the semi-finals of the final European Tour event on Sunday. Three wins from his opening four games puts him in second place by just one frame of Mark Davis who also won three of his four matches on the opening day.
Matt Selt started off with wins against Liang Wenbo and Mark Davis before a loss to Stuart Bingham provided Selt's only defeat of the day from three games, and Stuart's only success from four matches as the world champion sits in fifth place and will be badly struggling to qualify for the semi-finals.
Liang Wenbo meanwhile has achieved two wins from three matches to leave him in fourth place, while Dominic Dale suffered two defeats (and nearly had a maximum break made against him as Mark Davis went in-off on the pink trying to obtain black ball position) in his three matches.
Michael Holt also struggled losing two deciders (against Mark Davis and Dominic Dale) with a whitewash loss to Wilson in between meaning he is rock bottom without a victory from his first set of three matches.
What it all means is that Mark Davis and Kyren Wilson should be safe when it comes to making the top four in the table and progressing to the knock out stages.
Matt Selt and Liang Wenbo are both well placed with two wins from day one and still three matches to play on Tuesday from which they may only need a single win. Wenbo takes on Michael Holt, Mark Davis and Dominic Dale and would very much be a favourite to move on to the semi-finals at the end of the day. Selt meanwhile also takes on Michael Holt and Dominic Dale, with his other game coming against Kyren Wilson so you would once again fancy Selt.
Stuart Bingham will need to win his to remaining games, while Michael Holt will need to win all three of his and the pair play each other on day two. Bingham's other game comes against Dominic Dale who will need at least two wins from his games against the men currently sat in the three places directly ahead of him.
So, the likelihood based on todays form is that Wilson, Wenbo, Davis and Selt will make up the semi-finals and go head to head for that final spot in the Winners Group which starts on Wednesday. As we know in snooker though, anything can happen so there could yet be a surprise or two to come tomorrow before we find out who will join O'Sullivan, Trump, Maguire, Williams, Selby and Carter in the Championship League finale.
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