With the final qualifying round of the World Championship completed, the hunt for top 32 places goes on and here we will track just who is in and who is out. Updated and corrected as of the end of the World qualifiers…
With the final stages of the China Open still to be played, the picture is not entirely clear here but hopefully this post will help a little bit! Again it is hard to say exactly where the cut-off point is between those players who are safe and those who still could do with a win to secure a top 32 place, but here is my best guess:
Points after Tuesday:
23 Steve Davis 24544
24 Michael Holt 23225
25 Stephen Lee 23188
26 Matthew Stevens 23132
27 Liang Wenbo 22825
28 Judd Trump 21901
29 Nigel Bond 21357
30 Fergal O’Brien 20795
31 Gerard Greene 20751
32 Anthony Hamilton 20688
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33 Dominic Dale 20620
34 Ian McCulloch 19263
35 Michael Judge 19007
36 Mike Dunn 18739
37 Graeme Dott 18294
38 Rory McLeod 18163
39 Jamie Burnett 17888
40 Alan McManus 17801
42 Andrew Higginson 17438
43 Ken Doherty 17363
44 Stuart Pettman 16970
45 Marcus Campbell 16863
46 Martin Gould 16645
49 Tom Ford 15963
54 Paul Davies 14326
Not good sign for Judge, I predict him to beat Higginson.
As with most things stated on here ddrIII has a rather inaccurate view of snooker and the players relative abilities. Not for the first time his predictions are way off! Stevens losing helps Steve’s chances of moving up to the cusp of a top 20 place. Hopefully Walden and Wenbo will lose making the way clear for Steve to nestle in behind the top 16 at the end of this year before rightfully reclaiming his top 16 berth next season at 52 years old! All eyes turn to Tuesday and his match with Spick. A fresh challenge will suit Steve as he may have got bored with Gunnell for a 3rd time this year. With Spick and SDs great form from last week I think he will be at it from the word go and dominate 10-5 ish. Fingers crossed as the 3rd quarter at the Crucible looks very weak so if you draw players around Hendry’s section there is a real chance of a semi final place! Seriously weaker section to the other sections. Ding may step up as he is due but I suspect a qualifier will get through in this section and make at least the semis. It could be SD if he wins on Tuesday. Come on the nugget!
I’m not sure that I’d class Ding, Murphy and Fu as ‘very weak’…
Even Stephen could find some sort of form, I’m not overly hopeful but I wasn’t last year and look what happened. Even if he doesn’t though, the other three are all capable of doing some damage.
I second that.All four seeded players from 3rd quarter are capable to win at Crucible.
OK maybe Hendry is not with last form he presented but you never know with him.
Ebdon seems to be the weakest from all seeded at the moment , so i think all guys want to draw him.
Stevens result is really shocking for me.
ok,Gould is in good shape but 4-10 looks embarrassing, sorry…
All 16 clashes are very interesting but for me main question is :
Can we see Kendo at Crucible?
I believe he can do it.
Christ I hope so, if I could pick one result this week then it would be that. Nothing against Gerard Greene at all but I’d love to see Ken there again. I’d hate my last memory of him at the Crucible to be that Liang Wenbo match from last year.
matt
will stevens drop out of the top 32 ?
Should be ok, though he does have no more matches to play. I’ll add him to the list above actually.
Danny the rubbish you spout is pretty laughable to be honest. As Matt rightly points out, how can you class the likes of Ding, Fu and Murphy as being a seriously weaker section to others?
Pretty safe to say if anyone has an inaccurate view of snooker it’s yourself with comments like that.
I think its fair to wait and see what happens and who comes through that section of the draw. Murphy’s form is poor this season. Its only due to the UK he won that people have forgotten he has struggled so much. Hendry and Ding are struggling as there one year rankings would suggest and Fu does seem to have ROSs number but Im not sure he will prove the main stay of that section. You can be sure I will return to this prediction come April/May! ddrIII did not do any homework for his comment which I stated as inaccurate since Judge was all but out by the time he made his prediction. At 5.37pm he was about 9-4 down to Higginson! Im a big Davis fan and will build him up at every opportunity because like it or not the game needs contrast and the old guard still playing cos otheriwse it will continue to fade and or move to other shores. Opinion rather than rubbish is probably more accurate – I’ll have mine but please don’t say making a prediction when the game is virtually lost is anything but inaccurate. I rest my case – snooker pun in there too!!
re: danny boy
I know what you mean, it causing confuse maybe because of my poor English
My meaning should be something like that:
“(Oh no…) I was predicted him(Judge) to beat Higginson before the match start”
By the way, my prediction this time all went against me, only 4 of the 11 finished matches are rightly tip.
Unless I’ve missed something, Trump and Hamilton are still in the China Open so should be in green.
Thanks, my bad for rushing it so I could get to bed and be up for today
How about O’Brien who also still in China?
Now McCulloch and Dale are both out of the Top 32.
Ta. Will update it again tomorrow anyway, currently typing today’s report…
So many possibilities for the top 16 now. Would be great to do a similar report for the top 16 after the China Open. With Hendry getting Williams, there must be numerous possibilities. Ebdon must be very happy getting Bond and could yet get right back up there. Hawkins winning hasn’t helped Hendry and with Cope lurking as well the top 16 is full of possibiles. Even Jo Swail must fancy a late run. So fascinating but Hendry has it all to do. Lose to Williams and he must be praying for a win in China! Can’t wait.
Yeah I’ll do something over the next few days, just need an evening off having been so immersed in it for the past couple of weeks I think
As a huge Hendry fan I’m really worried now, just hope he can pull something out or alternatively, that his chasers lose early in the next few matches. Harold losing the other day helps I guess.
We shall see. The top 32 looks pretty set now, though Graeme Dott is playing much better now and could yet salvage something from the season…