Following Ricky Walden’s victory at the 2012 Wuxi Classic yesterday, World Snooker have today published the updated official ranking list (.pdf), and it has led me to re-consider the issue of which ranking points will be deducted at each cut-off point this season…
As my followers both on Twitter and here at PSB will be aware, one issue that I am keen to see clarified at present is exactly which points will be deducted at the season’s first seeing cut-off, which while on the face of it is a story that is not going to grab too many headlines, could potentially make the difference between a player being seeded or not for subsequent ranking events.
As explained previously, my latest projected seedings page is currently compiled on the assumption that the points to be removed at this season’s first cut-off will be those from PTC events 1-3 of the 2010/11 season, on the basis that come 12th August 2012, these events will be more than two years old.
Without official confirmation that this logic will be applied however, there remains an element of doubt and today that was not helped by the publication of the latest ranking list, which has already removed PTC events 1 and 2, despite the latter not yet being two years old, having finished on 11th July 2012.
While in this instance it is of little practical consequence, with the first-cut-off coming coming on the 12th August, it is interesting to note that two years ago there was a PTC staged between 14-16th August 2010. Will these points be removed early also?
As has been pointed out on Twitter, it may simply be that the points for PTC2 have been removed early as there is no corresponding event concluding on the 11th August 2012 this year when they could be removed.
As someone who is used to the tennis system of having a 52-week rolling rankings system by which the rankings are updated every Monday morning, irrespective of whether there has been a tournament played, perhaps I just find it hard to understand a two-year ranking system whereby points are removed early on the basis of when a tournament has been staged.
We shall see, chances are I am probably making an issue out of nothing and that PTC3 2010 will be removed following this season’s UKPTC2 on 12th August 2012, and my projected seedings list will prove to be correct.
It would just be nice if that were confirmed or otherwise sooner rather than later so that we all know where we stand…