18 months on from his maiden Asian Tour title at the Yixing Open, Joe Perry has today claimed his second, with victory against Thailand’s Thepchaiya Un-Nooh at the Xuzhou Open in China.
Click below for a round-up of the final day’s action, together with the implications for the Asian Order of Merit…
- Click here to view the results and draw
- Click here to view the latest projected seedings
- Click here to view the latest provisional Asian Order of Merit
- Click here to view my tournament preview at WPBSA.com
- Click here to view my update after day 3
Joe Perry has today claimed the second title of his career at an event carrying ranking points, following a 4-1 victory against Thepchaiya Un-Nooh.
Having made it to the semi-finals over the course of the tournament’s first three days, Joe first saw off Tom Ford in a deciding frame, breaks of 82 and 61 from 3-2 down enough to see the world number 13 into the final.
There he would face Thepchaya Un-Nooh, the Thai player through to his first professional final with a 4-1 victory against two-time world champion Mark Williams.
The first two frames were split, each player recording a break of 60, before Perry added runs of 51 and 93 in taking the next three to secure the title and with it, the £10,000 top prize.
The Grand Finals Race
With his victory today, Joe vaults to top spot on the final Asian Order of Merit, guaranteeing himself a place at the Players Championship Grand Finals in March. The top eight now looks as follows:
- Joe Perry
- Ding Junhui
- Stuart Bingham
- Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
- Oliver Lines
- Michael Holt
- Ryan Day
- Jimmy Robertson
But although the Asian Order of Merit has now been finalised, there is still the potential for the above eight qualifiers from the list to change, if any of them are able to finish higher on the final European Order of Merit after the conclusion of the ET6 event in Gdynia, than they have above.
For example if Ryan Day were to finish 6th or above on the European list, he would instead qualify through that Order of Merit and open up an extra spot on the Asian list.
At the time of writing, both Mark Williams and Matt Selt occupy the next two places, but with both currently inside the top 24 on the European list, the next man would could take advantage of any events in Gdynia would be China’s Tian Pengfei, who holds 11th place with £2,700.
Courtesy of Mikets in the comments below, the situation is as follows:
“None of the top 5 in the Grand Finals race can do as well in the European order of merit as they have done in Asia, even if they were to win ET6. If one of the other three were to win ET6 and qualify through the European OoM, Mark Williams would finish lower than 9th in Europe, since all four are in the bottom half of the Gdynia draw (so if one of the three were to win he could get at most £5000 and he is just over £5000 behind the current 9th position). Hence Williams would qualify as 9th on the Asian OoM and the extra place would go to the European OoM.”
Tour Spots
As for the race for the four two-year tour cards available through the Asian Order of Merit this season, the four players, not already qualified for next season’s tour by any other means are currently:
- Ross Muir
- Sean O’Sullivan
- Zhang Yong
- Cao Xinlong
Again, the situation may yet change depending upon what happens on the main two-year ranking list between now and the end of the season, for example if higher ranked players on the Asian list such as Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, Cao Yupeng or Alfie Burden were to drop out of the top 64.
A few people have asked as to the situation with Sean O’Sullivan, as he is currently set to earn a tour card through both the Asian and European lists. Which list would he take his place from?
This situation actually arose last season with Scott Donaldson, when it was decided that he would take his place from the European list, as that event finished first chronologically.
Assuming that the same logic is to apply this season, then it is the Asian Tour which will take priority this time around, as that series has concluded prior to the European Tour in 2015, with the Gdynia Open still to be played.
A full run-down of each player’s updated tour prospects will follow after the German Masters…