Down to the last 32 at the International Championship and we now know that Mark Selby will remain as world number one following the end of the week in Daqing, but there do still remain ranking issues to be determined ahead of this season’s third mid-season seedings revision.
Click below for a (belated) look at the current standings…
- Click here to view the draw for the International Championship
- Click here to view the latest projected seedings
- Click here to view the money tariffs for events this season
On 2 November 2015 following the International Championship, the current seedings list will be revised for the third time this season and will be used to determine the seedings for the 2015 UK Championship.
By the time of the revision, prize money earned from the 2013 AT1-AT3, 2013 Wuxi Classic, 2013 Australian Goldfields Open, 2013 ET1-ET4, 2013 Shanghai Masters, 2013 Indian Open and 2013 International Championship will have been deducted and replaced by that from this season’s events up to that date.
As always, I have already removed the points to be deducted from the appropriate column on my latest projected seedings list, to show the situation as up to date as possible.
Note that for this season, where a player loses their first match at a tournament, irrespective of the round, they will not receive any prize money towards their official world ranking.
Also note that all seeding permutations below are on the basis that all eligible players enter the relevant events.
Battle for Number 1
Following the conclusion of the last 64 round in Daqing, Mark Selby is now guaranteed to remain as world number one after the tournament ahead of reigning world champion Stuart Bingham.
Even before Bingham’s surprise defeat to China’s Yu Delu, Selby’s win against Mike Dunn was enough to ensure that he will not be overtaken following the International Championship.
Mark now has the opportunity to extend his lead further this week in China, before he is due to lose a reasonable amount of prize money from his total before the end of the year due to his strong performances late in 2013.
In terms of other chasers, both Neil Robertson and Shaun Murphy remain in the tournament and able to close the gap with a run to the title this week, although neither will be able to overhaul either Selby or Bingham by the end of this week.
At the time of writing, current world number four Ding Junhui is set to drop down to eighth position in the rankings, as of course he won the International Championship back in 2013 and is now defending that prize money.
The Top Eight
As mentioned above, Ding Junhui is set to finish eighth in the rankings after the International Championship, but can still be caught by three players by the end of the week. Both Mark Allen and Joe Perry would need to reach at least the final, while John Higgins must win the title and hope that Ding does not progress beyond the quarter-finals.
Barry Hawkins currently holds on to seventh place and could also be overtaken if two of the players mentioned above are able to run deep into the tournament in Daqing.
The Top 16
Although the battle for top 16 places is mathematically wide open, with players as far down as current provisional 53rd placed man Yu Delu still in with a shout, on closer inspection we can see that everyone down as far as 13th placed Mark Williams is guaranteed to remain inside the top 16 at the conclusion of the International Championship.
For Marco Fu, only a very specific set of results would be enough to see him fall out of the world’s top 16 at this revision. Indeed the potential scenario would require a semi-final defeat for Michael White, a final defeat for Graeme Dott and a memorable title success for either Jamie Jones, Michael Holt, Dominic Dale or Ben Woollaston.
Assume that doesn’t happen however, then only Stephen Maguire and Michael White find their positions at risk.
Maguire of course lost in qualifying for this tournament to Noppon Saengkham and so is unable to defend his current position of 15th. Closest to him is of course White, who must reach at least the semi-finals to earn £30,000 and overhaul the Scot.
Beyond White, Graeme Dott or Ryan Day could overhaul Maguire with a run to the final in Daqing, while any number of players could do so with an unlikely run to the title.
As for Michael White, he too will remain inside the top 16 if none of the players currently ranked below him are able to reach at least the semi-finals, with Graeme Dott currently his closest challenger remaining in the draw.
The Top 32
Currently holding on to the final spot inside the top 32 is Welshman Dominic Dale, but with former world champion Peter Ebdon just £8.00 behind him he cannot be sure of his place just yet.
Ebdon aside, both David Gilbert and Jimmy Robertson would need to reach at least the semi-finals to bring themselves into contention, while there are a further eight players needing to reach either the final or become the latest player this season to win a title from further down the ranking list.
The Top 64
Finally we have the top 64 race and with the players either side of that cut-off set to face each other in the opening round of the UK Championship (64 v 65, 63 v 66 etc), this is a particularly interesting battle to keep an eye on.
Currently on the brink is struggling veteran Anthony Hamilton, with four players provisionally lower still in the draw. Closest to him are talented duo Zhou Yuelong and Oliver Lines, both of whom would overtake him with just one more win in Daqing. As an interesting aside, Oliver would also overtake dad Peter Lines in the rankings for the first time with another win this week.
Lee Walker and Sanderson Lam meanwhile would need to reach the final if they are to make a shock breakthrough into the world’s top 64.
Stay tuned here at PSB for all of the latest updates over the course of the week…