World champion Kyren Wilson denied Championship League group win by Scott Donaldson

Wilson played at an exhibition-style competition in Finland last month, but this was his first outing on the World Snooker Tour since his glorious day at the Crucible several weeks ago.

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The 32-year-old salvaged a draw in his opening match against amateur Daniel Womersley; claiming the fourth frame for a 2-2 outcome and a share of the points at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester. Returning later in the day, Wilson hit breaks of 126 and 119 in the first two frames en route to a 3-0 victory over former World Women’s Champion Baipat Siripaporn.

This result set up a crunch decider with Donaldson in the final fixture of the group. Heading into that game, though, world number 51 Donaldson held the advantage having picked up maximum points after wins over Siripaporn (3-0) and Womersley (3-1).

The equation pre-match was simple - Donaldson would go through with a draw, while Wilson had to win.

In a high-quality encounter, Wilson deposited frame one with the aid of a 79 break, but Donaldson replied with efforts of 88 and 101 in frames two and three respectively to reach his two-frame target and guarantee the draw he needed to win the group and qualify for phase two.

The final frame was a dead rubber, but Wilson finished on a positive note as he compiled a 111 - his third century break of the day.

On the other table, world number 21 Hossein Vafaei dropped only one frame throughout the entire day as he capped Group 14 with a 100% record.

The Iranian is the fourth player in this year's event to have won all three of their matches during this initial groups phase.