Tuesday night at the Barbican Centre and it has been a day which has seen the battle for the remaining places at the Masters become clearer, with victories for Robert Milkins and Ricky Walden.
Click below for confirmation as to who remains in contention as we had into the second week of the UK Championship…
After all of the months of talking about the race to the 2014 Masters, the final tournament prior to the all-important seedings cut-off is upon us, with the 2013 UK Championship due to start a week on Tuesday.
Click below for my look at all the permutations and who has to do what, to claim the final places in snooker’s biggest invitational event…
While the International Championship continues apace, following exits for Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Williams and John Higgins today (results here), rather than posting a round-up of the results, I instead wanted to set out the details of a change to the seedings system, which will determine the draw for next month’s UK Championship…
It might only be a matter of hours since Ding Junhui became the 2013 Shanghai Masters champion, but the snooker circus stops for no man these days, as the action resumes later today with the second of the season’s four Asian Tour events, this one in Zhangjiagang, China.
As ever, all of the links that you will need to follow the tournament can be found on the sidebar to the right, while you can also read my recent thoughts on the entry list for the event and just why this event is more important for some players than it might otherwise seem, here.
Whilst writing, the conclusion of the Shanghai Masters yesterday also marked the second mid-season revision to the tournament seeding list, with the final standings at this cut-off now being available here.
Accordingly, the latest projected seedings list has been updated here and will track the seedings race for the UK Championship over the next five events, culminating at the International Championship in November.
Of course, with the UK Championship being another tournament to be staged with a flat draw this season, the seedings will take on far less significance, with the main interest being in the top 64 bracket with better seedings available for those who can make it.
Still, it is always good to keep a track of where players are, particularly as we approach the end of the year and the ‘race to the Masters’ in January intensifies for those at the top of the game…
While the change to a money based ranking list might not take effect until the start of next season, with tour places at stake and every pound, dollar or Euro earned during this season to count, already the latest provisional money list is something that a number of people, both players and fans, will be keeping an eye on.
I have touched on this before, but with a couple of ranking events down and now at the halfway point of the season’s European Tour, now seems like a good time to take an early look at how the race for main tour places next year is shaping up and how players can survive…
It might yet be five months away, but with the next two seedings cut-offs (ahead of the International and UK Championship), being of less importance, given the advent of the move to flat draws this season, the next big revision is that in December following the UK Championship, which will most notably, determine which 16 players will qualify for this season’s Masters.
Click below for an early look ahead, to see who is currently in the running for those places…
Last week’s ET2 event marked not only a return to the winners circle for Mark Williams, but also the first mid-season seedings revision of 2013/14. As it happens, Williams is one of the losers at this cut-off as he drops outside of the world’s top 16, while Neil Robertson replaces Mark Selby at the top of the rankings, following his strong start to the new campaign.
This list has now been used to determine the seedings for the upcoming Shanghai Masters tournaments, one of three events this season that will not be staged with a new, flatter draw structure.
Click below for a round-up of all of the changes to the seeding list and the usual handy links…
Following the conclusion of the Australian Goldfields Open yesterday, there is just one more event between now the season’s first seedings revision, ahead of next month’s Shanghai Masters qualifiers.
The event in question is the Rotterdam Open, which will take place this coming weekend and see those in contention battle it out to avoid having to qualify for Shanghai, or at least reduce the amount of matches required to do so.
Click below for an updated look at my blog from earlier in the month…