As reported by Dave Hendon on his blog, the three top 16 players involved in the Premier League event at Haywards Heath on November 13th have had to withdraw from the new ranking event in Bahrain due to a clash of dates.
This is undoubtedly a blow for those players as their rankings will now suffer as a result, though realistically they had little choice given that they had already signed contracts with Matchroom Sport earlier in the year. The one who is hurt the most is undoubtedly Ding Junhui though as while John Higgins and Mark Selby should comfortably remain in the top 16, Ding’s position looks far less secure on the back of his poor form over the last year or so. Hopefully these lost points will not prove to be decisive.
While these three players will lose out however, Matthew Stevens, Ken Doherty and Jamie Cope will be happy as due to being ranked 17-19 at the moment, they will now qualify for the final stages of the event automatically and will be spared the qualifiers at Prestatyn. Ken in particular will be relieved as having only won one frame from eleven played at Pontin’s this year, he will hope to be much more comfortable in the more familiar surroundings of a TV venue.
The one thing that Dave does not mention is what will happen to Steve Davis who should he qualify for Bahrain would also have to miss out on the tournament as he is due to play on that Premier League evening. Maybe he will play his qualifying match and then withdraw in order to secure some ranking points at least? If anyone could confirm this then that would be great.