Two ranking tournaments into the 2015/16 campaign, already it is possible to identify some of the players who are sure of being on the main tour next season and perhaps more importantly, those whose places are at real risk.
With every pound, dollar or euro to be earned during the remainder of this season likely to be crucial, today I take my customary look at the likely qualification criteria and look at some of those to follow over the coming months…
As the dust settles on Kyren Wilson’s remarkable victory at the Shanghai Masters, the official world rankings will now be revised for the second time this season as Kyren is rewarded for his victory with a 32 place rise up the list.
Continue reading for more information on the key changes to the seeding list, which will now be used to determine the seedings for the International Championship…
It feels like a long time since we last saw the players in ranking event action and indeed it has been, as over two months have passed since July’s Australian Goldfields Open.
Next week though the professionals will be back in action at the 2015 Shanghai Masters, with Stuart Bingham looking to defend the title that he won 12 months ago and following the event will also come the second mid-season seeding revision of the current season.
A short post during a period of rare downtime from the snooker tour to flag up two of the ranking lists to follow during the next few months as players look to qualify for this season’s Masters and World Grand Prix tournaments.
Here you can view the race to the 2016 Masters, which includes only points that will count towards qualification for the sport’s biggest invitational tournament, following the cut-off point this December.
You can also view the race to the World Grand Prix list here, which will include prize money from the start of this season, through to the Gdynia Open next year.
Closer analysis will of course follow as the season progresses…
It feels like yesterday that World Snooker announced that new tour players would earn a two-year professional card, instead of just the one which had been the norm up until that point, but in fact the 2015/16 season marks the fourth season that the current system has been in place.
That means that we have now seen two waves of players to have been awarded the two-year cards, but just what sort of a difference have the extended cards made and have they made it easier for new players to break into the top 64 of the world rankings at the end of the two years?
Today then I take a look at how new professionals have fared in recent years and consider some of the other knock-on effects of the introduction of two-year cards and changes to the tour generally…
With confirmation of the details relating to the various seedings revisions that will take place during the course of the 2015/16 season having recently been issued by World Snooker, I have now been able to prepare the appropriate pages breaking down what each player will be ‘defending’ at each of the cut-offs.
You can access all of the pages here in my main 2015/16 rankings menu and as is to be expected, Ding Junhui as the winner of five ranking events during the 2013/14 season is one of the players who is due to lose the most points from his ranking over the course of the season.
Further analysis will follow this month ahead of the start of the Riga Open.
Following John Higgins’ victory at the Australian Goldfields Open yesterday, the official world rankings will now be revised for the first time this season with the Scot moving up a place to 12th, while runner-up Martin Gould also climbs one position to 25th.
Continue reading for confirmation of all of they key changes to the seeding list, which will now be used to determine the seedings for the Shanghai Masters…
It might only be June, but following the conclusion of next week’s Australian Goldfields Open we will see the first mid-season seeding revision of the 2015/16 campaign.
The revision is a notable one too, with seedings for the Shanghai Masters, another event not to be played under a flat draw format, up for grabs in Bendigo…