While the seedings list for the World Championship has not yet quite been finalised, as things have become clearer throughout the week, it has been hard to not look ahead anyway. Click below to see how things are shaping up at the time of writing…
We do not yet know who will occupy all of the seedings places but with the format being the same each year, assuming that there is no significant format change this year, we do know where the seedings will be placed in the draw for the Crucible. As it stands we will have something like this:
Top Quarter
Neil Robertson (1)
Qualifier
Marco Fu (16)
Qualifier
Graeme Dott (9)
Qualifier
Ali Carter (8)
Qualifier
Second Quarter
Ding Junhui (5)
Qualifier
Peter Ebdon (12)
Qualifier
Stephen Hendry (13)
Qualifier
Mark Selby (4)
Qualifier
Third Quarter
Mark Williams (3)
Qualifier
Jamie Cope (14)
Qualifier
Mark Allen (11)
Qualifier
Stephen Maguire (6)
Qualifier
Bottom Quarter
Shaun Murphy (7)
Qualifier
Ronnie O’Sullivan (10)
Qualifier
Ricky Walden (15)
Qualifier
John Higgins (2)
Qualifier
Interesting stuff I’m sure you will agree. So what can still change? The big one is the positions of John Higgins and Mark Williams which could change if Mark were to make this week’s final and see John lose out to Matthew Stevens tomorrow for example. Looking at the potential draw, I am not sure that being second is a particular advantage, indeed I would probably prefer the third spot to avoid Ronnie O’Sullivan and Shaun Murphy.
Speaking of Ronnie, Graeme Dott’s win against Neil Robertson tonight saw Graeme bump Ronnie down to 10th, something that ironically enough is probably good news for Neil as he will not surely be unhappy to have the ‘big three’ all in the other half to him.
Other possible movers? Ding and Selby are near enough level on points at the moment so if Ding were to advance a round further, those two would switch places. Ali Carter with a good run could jump ahead of Shaun Murphy and Stephen Maguire and having reached the final here for the past two years that cannot be ruled out.
Finally, Matthew Stevens could move into 16th position if he could make the final, or 15th if he can win it. He faces a tough match against John Higgins next but again, it is feasible that he could do it.
With the draws for Sheffield and China set to be announced on Monday, hopefully I will be able to bring you more then…