During the past couple of weeks, a number of players have been asking me how the race for places in next year’s PTC Grand Finals is currently shaping up, particularly as there was not a list out there including minimum points earned for the ET6 event, the first two rounds of which have already been held.
Now however, the list over at snookerorg has been updated to include these points and give the most up to date position possible.
While it is very hard to give estimates as to how much will be enough to get players into the finals, click below for a few general observations and the usual handy links anyway…
- Click here to view the draw for ET5
- Click here to view the draw for ET6
- Click here to view the latest Order of Merit
The Qualification Criteria
Before getting into the ins and outs as to who needs to do what, let’s rewind and remind ourselves of the criteria that will be used to find the 32 players who will compete in the 2013 PTC Grand Finals:
- The top 25 from the PTC Order of Merit
- The three APTC event winners from 2012/13
- The top four players on the 2012/13 Asian Order of Merit
Of course with the currently suspended Stephen Lee having won one of the APTC events and Stuart Bingham having won two, the situation is complicated somewhat, but you can view this document provided by World Snooker for a full explanation as to how qualification is dealt with in the events of ties and people qualifying via both lists and so on.
In a nutshell, applying those hypothetical situations to the facts, those currently qualified look to be:
- Stuart Bingham – APTC event winner
- Stephen Lee* – APTC event winner
- Ding Junhui – APTC OOM (1)
- Li Hang – APTC OOM (2)
- Robert Milkins – APTC OOM (3)
- Tom Ford – APTC OOM (4)
- Cao Yupeng – APTC OOM (5) – due to Bingham having won two events
*currently suspended – place could potentially go to Xiao Guodong as the next player on the APTC OOM.
With the exception of Stuart Bingham, if any of the above players are able to finish inside the top 25 on the main Order of Merit list (none currently are), then they will qualify from whichever list they finish the highest on. For example if Ding Junhui is able to finish 12th on the main PTC list, his place would go to 26th position on that list, Ding having already qualified in a higher position on the APTC list.
In Bingham’s case however, he will qualify from the final courtesy of his two APTC wins, therefore if he is able to finish inside the top 25 on the main list, again the 26th placed man would take his spot.
ET Prize Money Structure and Remaining Events
Still to come are the ET5 event in Ravenscraig which gets underway later this week, as well as the final stages of the Munich Open, which has already been played down to the last 32 in Sheffield.
For reference, the prize money available by round in both events is as follows:
- W: €12000
- F: €6000
- SF: €3000
- QF: €2000
- R16: €1250
- R32: €750
- R64: €500
- R128: €0
The Order of Merit as it stands
- Click here to view the latest Order of Merit
While it is usually easy to make a reasonable guess as to who will qualify for which tiers on the ranking list, with the amount of money available at the ET events meaning that players can come from nowhere to qualify with one good run, it is harder to make predictions on this list.
As a conservative estimate, I would be very surprised to see anyone from Joe Swail or above on 8,100 being caught, while I would also be surprised to see either Joe Perry or Mark Williams caught, notwithstanding the fact that they will not be involved in Munich.
On that basis, I make all down from 18th placed Alfie Burden, vulnerable to some extent, with those immediately below him very much in a scrap for victories in Scotland and Germany.
We will of course know much more following the conclusion of ET5 in a week’s time, following which a full update will be posted here at PSB, but for the time being, look below to see at a glance who your favourites have to play first up in the final two PTC events…
The Fixtures
18th – Alfie Burden – 7,050
- ET5 – John Parkin (a)
- ET6 – OUT
19th – Andrew Higginson – 6,850
- ET5 – Mike Dunn
- ET6 – OUT
20th – Michael Holt – 6,800
- ET5 – TBC
- ET6 – OUT
21st – Mark Davis – 6,550
- ET5 – TBC
- ET6 – R32 v Liu Chuang
21st – Shaun Murphy – 6,550
- ET5 – TBC
- ET6 – OUT
23rd – Ken Doherty – 6,400
- ET5 – TBC
- ET6 – R32 v Rod Lawler
24th – Alan McManus – 6,350
- ET5 – TBC
- ET6 – R32 v Jack Lisowski
25th – Dominic Dale – 6,300
- ET5 – Passakorn Suwannawat
- ET6 – R32 v Liam Highfield
—————————————————
26th – Ding Junhui – 6,100
- ET5 – Michael Leslie
- ET6 – OUT
27th – Michael White – 6,000
- ET5 – TBC
- ET6 – OUT
28th – Rory McLeod – 5,700
- ET5 – Cao Yupeng
- ET6 – OUT
29th – Anthony Hamilton – 5,650
- ET5 – TBC
- ET6 – R32 v Stephen Maguire
30th – Liang Wenbo – 5,550
- ET5 – Peter Ebdon
- ET6 – R32 v Justin Astley (a)
30th – Ryan Day – 5,550
- ET5 – TBC
- ET6 – OUT
32nd – Mark Joyce – 5,400
- ET5 – Aditya Mehta
- ET6 – OUT
33rd – Pankaj Advani – 5,200
- ET5 – Gerard Greene
- ET6 – OUT
34th – Kurt Maflin – 5,050
- ET5 – TBC
- ET6 – Neil Robertson
35th – Ricky Walden – 4,850
- ET5 – Xiao Guodong
- ET6 – Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon
36th – Graeme Dott – 4,750
- ET5 – Daniel Wells
- ET6 – R32 v Aditya Mehta
37th – Paul Davison – 4,700
- ET5 – James Cahill (a)
- ET6 – OUT
37th – Thepchaiya Un-Nooh – 4,700
- ET5 – Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon
- ET6 – R32 v Ian Burns
39th – Dave Harold – 4,650
- ET5 – Sam Baird
- ET6 – Jimmy Robertson
39th – Robert Milkins – 4,650
- ET5 – Zhang Anda
- ET6 – R32 v Martin Gould
41st – Jamie Cope – 4,500
- ET5 – Scott Donaldson
- ET6 – OUT
42nd – Dechawat Poomjaeng – 4,450
- ET5 – Simon Bedford
- ET6 – OUT
42nd – Stuart Bingham – 4,450
- ET5 – TBC
- ET6 – OUT
44th – Jimmy White – 4,400
- ET5 – Liu Chuang
- ET6 – OUT
45th – Tian Pengfei – 4,200
- ET5 – James Wattana
- ET6 – R32 v Jamie Burnett
45th – Tom Ford – 4,200
- ET5 – TBC
- ET6 – OUT
47th – Andrew Pagett – 4,000
- ET5 – Joel Walker
- ET6 – OUT
48th – Robbie Williams – 3,950
- ET5 – TBC
- ET6 – OUT
49th – Ian Burns – 3,750
- ET5 – TBC
- ET6 – R32 v Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
49th – Mark King – 3,750
- ET5 – TBC
- ET6 – R32 v Michael Walsey