Those defeats proved big blows for the pair who both lost their opening three matches on the day before a Maguire Vs Selby showdown in the days final game saw Maguire get off of the mark and leaving Selby at the foot of the table after day one.
Matt Selt has managed one victory from three games after beating Selby in a surprise 3-0 score line, but other than that he has had little success losing 3-1 to Ali Carter despite making a break of 112, whilst Mark Williams was a 3-0 winner in their final game of the day.
Williams other wins came 3-0 against Ali Carter and 3-2 against Maguire making two centuries to start off that match to leave Williams on three wins from four matches. His only defeat of the day came to Judd Trump who is two wins from three matches along with Carter. Ali's best win of the day came against Mark Selby 3-1 in the evening session and included a break of 103.
What it means going into the final day is that Ronnie O'Sullivan and Mark Williams are clearly in very strong positions in the group, while Mark Selby may as well go home now with no chance of making it through to the knock out stages. His remaining games come against Mark Williams and Judd Trump but that does not mean it will be easy wins for the pair with money still to play for and Selby being the ultimate competitor that he is.
Matt Selt still has a chance to climb into the top four but you would think that he would need at least two wins from his final three group games, coming up against Ronnie O'Sullivan, Judd Trump and Stephen Maguire meaning it will certainly not be an easy task.
Maguire's remaining group game aside from Selt will be against Carter knowing all to well with the position that he is in that he needs two wins to have any chance, although because of the nature of some of his losses his frames won tally looks reasonably healthy at this stage.
Carter obviously still has work to do and away from his game against Maguire he will also face key games against Judd Trump (also on two wins from three games) and Ronnie O'Sullivan and needing at least one win and possibly two to qualify Ali is by no means home and dry yet in terms of qualification for the knock out stages.
I mentioned the fact that Trump there is in the same position meaning his match with Carter could really be the telling one in terms of who makes the semi-finals and who does not. Trump will also face Mark Selby and Matt Selt, needing one or possibly two wins to ensure a crack at trying to win the competition outright in the knock out stages.
It may not seem like a big event but that does not make tomorrow any less of a lucrative day for the players still involved. For the winner there is a guaranteed place in the Champion of Champions event, and £10,000 for winning the group, on top of the prize money for frames won (which would equate to a further £1,800 for the winner with 6x £300 per frame wins, with £200 for each frame won in the round robin stage going on top of that) while the runner-up receives £5,000 and the losing semi-finalists £3,000 each.
It will also be good practice for the seven guys who all feature in next weeks World Grand Prix which I will be previewing at the end of this week.
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