Click to view my new projected seedings list
As posted a few weeks ago, I recently posted up my first attempt at working out what the next projected seedings list is going to look like but I have since received a few questions about it and hope to clarify the situation below…
Click here to read my previous article on the seedings.
To be clear, my projected seedings list does not show the official rankings at the moment. To view the end of season rankings/seedings at the end of 2010/11 following the World Championship please click here. These seedings will be used for the Australian Open and Shanghai Masters tournaments in 2011/12.
My projected seedings list shows how the seedings are shaping up to look at the first seedings cut-off point which follows the PTC6 event on the 3rd October.
The minimum points that I have allocated to the players are confirmed.
What is not confirmed is which points will be removed from the 2009/10 rankings at the first cut-off point. What I think we can say is that the points from the 2009 Shanghai Masters will come off but what is yet to be confirmed is whether or not those from the 2009 Grand Prix will come off at this stage, or whether they will stay on to the second. As it happens that tournament actually began on the 3rd October 2009 so it is very much borderline. For the purposes of my list I have deducted the points from both events. Should this position change then I will amend my list accordingly.
The second issue revolves around starter points for newcomers to the tour who did not compete during the 2010/11 season. On this issue the ranking schedule states:
“Players who have joined The Tour commencing the 2011/2012 season will receive starter points equivalent to points earned in the 2010/2011 season by the lowest ranked player retaining a place on the 2011/2012 Tour, and starter points equivalent to the 8th player who qualified from the 1 year list in respect of the 2009/2010 season. Players on The Tour who have earned points in the 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 seasons will retain the points earned and will not be allocated any other points (even if they are less than the starter points allocated).”
There is therefore room for ambiguity there as to me the matter centres around whether players such as David Gilbert and Adam Wicheard who played on the tour last season, but had to come through the Q School last month in order to remain on the tour.
Will these players be treated as having retained or regained a place having actually been relegated at the end of last season?
If it is the former then technically the lowest ranked player retaining a place on the tour last season would be Adam Wicheard who earned just 5,755 points last season.
If it is the latter then the lowest ranked player to have retained a place would be Igor Figueiredo and to me that would be the more logical way to do it. He earned 8,235 points last season which is the figure I have allocated to newcomers for 2010/11 on my projected seedings page. I stress however that I have heard nothing official on that note and that it is just an assumption on my part.
At the time of writing that is probably as well as I can probably explain it but if you have any more questions then please do leave a comment on either this, or my projected seedings page as a few of you have been recently.