After Ali Carter flew to victory in group six of the Championship League it is time for the final qualifying group ahead of the winners group starting on Wednesday.
In group seven we have losing finalist in group six who was Dominic Dale, Dale also played in Gdynia over the weekend where he lost out in round two to in-form Martin Gould.
The losing semi-finalists in group six who move on to group seven are Mark Davis and Michael Holt, both of whom suffered last 64 exits in Gdynia over the weekend also.
Kyren Wilson took the lucky loser fifth place in group six in order to move on to this group, and he did make the final day in Gdynia losing out in the semi-finals to Martin Gould, so he should still be back for this group as I do not expect him to withdraw.
The three new players coming in for this group are World Champion Stuart Bingham who moved from group four to group seven so could have been playing much sooner in the defence of his Championship League title. Bingham lost out in the first round of the Gdynia Open over the weekend to Fraser Patrick meaning he will not feature in the Players Championship finals. That now means that Bingham only has this week in Crondon Park, the Grand Prix and China Open before defending his world title at the Crucible in April.
Liang Wenbo is the second new player coming in for group seven. Wenbo also suffered a shock first round exit in Gdynia at the weekend 4-0 to amateur qualifier Elliot Slessor.
Finally, we have Matt Selt who will be hoping to put behind him missing out on the players championship finals, by only one place on the combined list after Martin Gould made the Gdynia Open final.
Whoever wins this group will join up with group one winner, Masters and Welsh Open champion Ronnie O'Sullivan, group two and former Championship League winner Judd Trump, group three winner Stephen Maguire, group four winner Mark Williams, champion of group five and the weekends Gdynia Open Mark Selby as well as Ali Carter the latest group winner from last Thursday.
Obviously there is no threat of relegation as this is the final qualifying group so only one thing matters in the long term and that is the group winner. Bingham and Wenbo are the highest ranked players in the group but their form seems to have gone walkabouts in recent times with very disappointing first round exits in Gdynia. Matt Selt has been solid this season without doing too much, while Michael Holt will just be hoping not to make such hard work out of his round robin matches after the deciders he played over groups five and six.
Kyren Wilson seemed to be playing well in Gdynia and is one of the favourites to win this group for sure and looking at recent form he probably has the best chance, while you should not rule out Mark Davis who seems to be cueing fairly well after making the semi-finals of both groups five and six, winning the world seniors and looking impressive whenever I watched him in Cardiff.
I will of course be back throughout the week with updates from group 7 on Monday and Tuesday, before the winners group on Wednesday and Thursday and then the return to ranking event action will be in a weeks time with the World Grand Prix.
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