Runner-up in APTC1 to Stuart Bingham, world number six Stephen Lee today went one better in Yixing, defeating Ding Junhui 4-0 to win the season’s second APTC event and with it, the £10,000 top prize…
- Click here to view the results from the event in full
- Click here to view the updated projected seedings
- Click here to view the updated APTC Order of Merit
Having defeated the likes of Xiao Guodong, Robert Milkins and Joe Perry to reach the final, Stephen lined up against home favourite Ding Junhui as the tournament came to a conclusion today.
After a tight opening frame which was decided on the black however, Lee looked the only winner, a top break of 97 seeing him on his way to a 4-0 win.
While these events may come somewhat under the radar, with 2,000 ranking points and £10,000 available, they are just as valuable as a UK-based PTC event to the winner, indeed arguably more so as Lee’s victory now assures him of a place at the Grand Finals next year where he will look to defend his 2012 title.
It is hard to know what to make of these events, not having watched them on television, or really had a great deal of feedback on at all from the venue. For the main tour players, they are a useful opportunity to pick up a few extra ranking points, particularly for players who have had a slow start to the season, notably Matthew Stevens, Ben Woollaston and Xiao Guodong who were among those earning useful points this week.
Of course the primary focus is on the local players, and with just one more APTC3 event to come, the race is now very much on for those looking to finish inside the top four of those not already qualified for the tour next year, thus earning a main tour ticket for 2013/14. As is highlighted at the excellent snookerorg (see here), former professionals Jin Long and Mei Xiwen are currently poised to make a return, as are fellow amateurs Li Yuan and Zhao Xintong.
As a constant danger in the wildcard rounds of the full ranking events, it will be good to see Jin Long back on the main tour if he can make it, though of course he has already had a number of spells on the main tour in the pas, albeit in the old ’6-7 event’ seasons. It would be interesting to see how he would fare under the current set-up, I suspect he would be somewhat better equipped to do well…
Next up, the qualifiers for the World Seniors Championship this weekend from Sheffield…
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Allineas
September 27, 2012 at 7:54 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
A question about main tour qualification… As I see the OOM, Jin Long, Li Yuan and Mei Xiwen would be clearly qualified, but what about Zhao Xintong?
He has won 1200 in the two events so far, as have five other amateur players. From last year’s PTC list I understand that in this case the best performance wins, so with 1000 and 200 Zhao is ranked higher than players with 2×600, but Shi Hanqing has achieved exactly the same scores as Zhao and should be ranked equally. With only one event to go, I can imagine that kind of situation coming up in the final rankings too – what will happen then? Similar case for the top 7 (event winners plus top 4), which is a clear cut after event two, but there might be another tie after the third event… Just wondering.
Mics147
September 27, 2012 at 8:36 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
your absolutely right, it is a mistake in snooker.org’s list
PrestatynFan
September 28, 2012 at 7:29 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
The order of ranking on the OOM is clearly set out in the players entry pack for APTC3. That is – “Players on equal positions on the APTC Order of Merit will be ranked according to their best APTC performance working backwards”. So on this basis Shi Hanqing should be listed as the fourth main tour qualification player as he did best in APTC2 of all the players on 1200 points.Of course, everything now depends on APTC3,
Allineas
September 28, 2012 at 9:19 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
What does it mean – “working backwards”? They don’t really rate APTC3 higher than APTC1, do they? If they do, then Shi is ranked higher than Zhao, sure, but to me it makes absolutely no sense.
Mike S
September 29, 2012 at 9:37 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
“Working backwards” cannot refer to dates of events. In last year’s PTC order of merit Lisowski and Michael White tied for 24th place. Both had a best performance of 2500 and White’s was the later of the two, but Lisowski qualified for the PTC finals. I assume it must mean if necessary take into account the second best performance, then the third and so on. This is consistent with the Lisowski/White situation – Lisowski’s second best was 1500, but White’s was 1000.
With only three events in the APTC series it’s quite likely that this will be insufficient to resolve any tie for the last place on the main tour of the last place in the PTC finals, in which case I guess a play-off would have to be held.
Allineas
September 29, 2012 at 2:50 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Thanks, sounds reasonable
I guess it would be fun seeing THREE players with the exact same scores… Far from impossible, but sadly still not likely to happen.
Of course referring to the dates would be totally nonsense, but it was what I understood from PrestatynFan.
Mike S
September 28, 2012 at 10:29 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Ding is also now assured of a place in the PTC finals – only the two finalists at APTC3 can overtake him in the order of merit, since he’s over 3000 clear of all of his rivals and only the finalists earm more than 2500.
(With only three events it was always very unlikely that any beaten finalist would fail to end up in the top 4 non-event-winners in the order of merit.)
snookerguy
September 28, 2012 at 10:53 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I would like to direct your awareness to the excellent website http://my147.com/ which has focus and the Asian PTCs. It even has video coverage of some of the matches, although it is not broadcast live and the quality isn’t so good, but it is still watchable. I know that it is in chinese, but the way I see it, the future of snooker lies to very much in Asia, and one day it will be almost necessary to be able to read chinese in order to follow snooker closely. In the past foreign snooker players had to learn english in order to make a living as a snooker player. I think there is a huge sponsor market for the first few of the top players who learn chinese
ddrIII
September 28, 2012 at 1:44 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
In fact Jin Long should had already on the Main Tour though Chinese nomination earlier this year.
I think he turned it down due to lack of financial support.
wild
September 28, 2012 at 7:05 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
so what has changed has he won the lottery ?
BoroPhil
September 28, 2012 at 8:07 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I’m sure he can afford to play in China, it must be the UK he has the financial problems with.