Stuart Bingham’s victory at the Shanghai Masters yesterday marked not only his biggest tournament win to date, but also the end of the second stage of the 2014/15 season as the seedings are revised for the International Championship.
Click below for a round-up of all of the changes to the seeding list, including confirmation of a change at the top of the rankings since Australia…
- Click here to view the final standings at the second mid-season seedings revision
Number 1
We might only be in September, but already this season we have seen a third change at the top of the world rankings, as Mark Selby regains top spot from Nell Robertson following his victory at the Riga Open back in August.
With Robertson set to lose more points than anyone other than Judd Trump at the next seedings revision, due to his points earned from his run to the final of the 2012 International Championship being removed, Selby heads into the next cut-off with a lead of nearly £100,000 to Robertson and Ding Junhui.
The Top 16
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There is no change to the composition of the world’s top 16 players, with 16th placed Graeme Dott extending his lead over nearest challengers Mark Davis and Robert Milkins.
Looking at the top 16 more generally, following Stuart Bingham’s victory in Shanghai, there is now a sizeable gap separating the top 10 from the chasing pack, with the top six themselves significantly clear of those below and then the top three occupying their own elite tier.
As correctly pointed out by Joe Perry on Twitter, this is no doubt a result of the increased prize money to the winners of events and is interesting in that we have effectively a top ten made up of tournament winners, the top six of multiple tournament winners and the top three of serial winners.
Another point to note of course is that with Ali Carter due to return to competitive action next month in Sofia, expect his points tally to change depending upon how the WPBSA approach a potential freeze of his ranking, as I considered here recently.
17-32
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- Kurt Maflin
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- Mark Joyce
Having climbed up into the world’s top 32 for the first time in his career at the last cut-off, Mark Joyce drops back out following his early exit to Li Hang in qualifying for the Shanghai Masters.
Taking his place is Norway’s Kurt Maflin, who despite falling in the third qualifying round for the tournament, at least won his opening match and therefore was able to add some points to his tally.
Otherwise this section of the rankings remains fairly static and it will be interesting to see who the next players to break into this section and stay there will be, or whether somebody like a returning to form Andrew Higginson will be able to do so.
33-64
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- David Morris
- Kyren Wilson
OUT
- Pankaj Advani (resigned membership)
- Jimmy White
Two changes in this section of the rankings, as David Morris and Kyren Wilson both climb into the top 64 ahead of the International Championship next month.
Both players who enjoyed excellent 2013/14 seasons, with no points to defend this term it was only a matter of time before both managed to move up into the top 64 and they will both now be looking to remain there until the end of the season in order to retain their respective tour cards.
Dropping out are Pankaj Advani and Jimmy White, the former on account of his decision to resign his WPBSA membership and withdraw from the tour, while Jimmy was unable to win his opening match at the Shanghai qualifiers and narrowly loses out to Kyren Wilson.