Judd Trump bows out of Championship League as Ryan Day and Luca Brecel progress to Final Group

Jonathan Davies in Championship League Snooker 11 June 2020

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Stuart Bingham sees off Ronnie O’Sullivan in the Championship League

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Championship League Snooker Finals Group Preview and Order of Play: Final four vie for the title

Welsh ace Day progresses (China Images/SIPA USA/PA Images)

Judd Trump bowed out of the Championship League as Ryan Day and Luca Brecel booked their places in the final round in Milton Keynes on Wednesday.

World champion Trump was whitewashed in his opening match by Welshman Day, who also added two draws on the way to topping Group B.

The world number one – and winner of six ranking events this season – responded with victory over Barry Hawkins, but a 2-2 draw with David Gilbert was only good enough to secure second place.

Meanwhile, Belgian Brecel also registered five points as he secured first place in Group A on a day of high-quality snooker that brought eight centuries across 12 matches at the Marshall Arena.

He and Day join Stuart Bingham and Ben Woollaston in Thursday’s final group.

Fresh from beating Kyren Wilson to secure top spot in Group 12 last week, world number 36 Day built on his momentum in Wednesday’s opening match against Trump.

The two-time ranking event winner had lost three of his four previous meetings with the reigning Crucible king but came flying out of the blocks with back-to-back centuries of 122 and 107.

He then produced a magnificent counter clearance of 60 from 58-1 down to seal the whitewash.

Day followed that up with a pair of 2-2 draws against Hawkins and David Gilbert, who went close to a maximum in his stalemate with Trump – missing a tricky yellow after potting 15 reds and blacks.

The Welshman is joined in the final group by Brecel, who recovered from a shaky start in which he forfeited a frame in his opening match against Mark Joyce after falling foul to the three-miss rule.

Despite that, the former China Championship winner responded to earn a 2-2 draw, before breaks of 109, 64 and 74 helped him to a 3-1 success over Ashley Carty, who topped Group 16 after beating former World champions Neil Robertson and Ken Doherty on Sunday.

Another stalemate against Crucible semi-finalist Gary Wilson, who hit a top break of 132 earlier in the day, was enough for the Belgian to progress after Carty was beaten 3-1 by Joyce in the Group A decider.

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