Defending champion Stevens struggles on day one - 09/01/2012

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DEFENDING champion Matthew Stevens is heading for an early exit after a miserable opening day in the first group of 2012 Championship League Snooker.

Matthew Stevens

Stevens suffered defeats against Mark Selby, Andrew Higginson and Shaun Murphy to fall to the foot of the table without a point.

He needs a strong performance on Tuesday to keep his hopes of repeating his 2011 triumph but faces a tough task with matches against Mark Davis, Ali Carter and Judd Trump.

World number one Mark Selby is in a strong position to advance into the Winners Group where he would then have a chance of qualifying for the 2012 Premier League Snooker event.

He beat Stevens, Murphy and Trump as Selby and Mark Davis were the only players to win all of their matches.

There is £500 on offer to the highest break and Davis leads the way with his effort of 133 against Andrew Higginson, who was on the receiving end of five century breaks made against him.

The Championship League Snooker event is a venture between Matchroom Sport and Perform where 25 of the game's finest players compete with all matches broadcast on a host of betting websites.

Each group features seven players with each man playing the other six once in a round-robin basis. Every match is the best of five (with dead frames not played) and the winner gains one point with the loser getting zero.

At the end of the league phase the top four advance to that group's semi-finals where the two winners meet in the final and the winner advances to the Winners' Group at the end of March.

The losing finalist, two losing semi-finalists and player finishing fifth move into the next group where they are joined by three new players and the process is repeated.

At the end of the seventh group, the seven group winners move into the Winners' Group and the overall champion of that will secure their spot in the 2012 Premier League in the autumn.

Each of the players in the first group is inside the top 20 in the world and Group One concludes on Tuesday before Group Two starts the following day.