World Championship 2015: Tour Survival Blog

pondsAfter months of updates and speculation, Wednesday will see the start of the 2015 Betfred World Championship qualifiers and with them, the climax of the race for main tour places for the 2015/16 season.

As is now tradition, this then is the post that will be updated throughout this week’s matches (and the Crucible if necessary), focusing on those players and results that will finally determine who will remain a professional come May and who will be facing a trip to Burton for Q School…

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Tour Survival 2014/15 – Player by Player (February Update)

With the season now into its most critical phase, click below for my latest in-depth, player by player update on the race for main tour places for the 2015/16 season, up to date after the German Masters event.

Below I look at how each player stands on each of the relevant ranking lists and also just why next month’s Gdynia Open is set to be a huge event for some of the players involved…

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UK Championship 2014: Tournament Preview

Barbican

Following a weekend in Germany for the Ruhr Open, the snooker circus heads to York on Tuesday for the start of the second most prestigious ranking event on the calendar, the UK Championship in York.

Click below for my thoughts on the tournament in general, as well as the shape of the draw and confirmation of which opening round matches will be streamed prior to the start of the televised stages at the weekend…

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Tour Survival 2014/15 – Player by Player

Last season a very popular feature here at PSB proved to be my in-depth, player by player updates on the race for main tour places for the 2014/15 season, as I attempted to untangle the various overlapping ranking lists and orders of merit.

Although we are still only in September, already taking a look at how this season’s battle is shaping up (particularly with only six European Tour events scheduled to take place this season instead of last year’s eight), there are a few interesting themes developing and therefore I have below taken my first look at just who will need to have a strong finish to the season if they are to remain on tour for 2015/16, with some surprise names currently in the drop zone…

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World Snooker Rankings 2014/15: Seedings Revision One Round-Up

Robertson1

It might only be early July, but today saw the first mid-season seedings revision of 2014/15, following Judd Trump’s victory at the Australian Goldfields Open in Bendigo.

This list will now be used to determine the seedings for September’s Shanghai Masters, which remains one of three events that will not be staged under the increasingly common flat draw structure.

Click below for a round-up of all of the changes to the seeding list, including a change at the head of the rankings…

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Closing In On The Cut: July 2014

Selby1

We might still be in June as I write this, but little over a week from now will come the first seedings revision of the 2014/15 season, following the final of the Australan Goldfields Open in Bendigo.

Determining the seedings for this season’s Shanghai Masters, one of just three events remaining under the ‘non-flat’ draw structure, the cut-off marks the first mid-season revision under the new prize money based ranking list.

Click below for my analysis…

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2014/15: Money To Defend, Themes To Follow

Ding

For those of us who like to keep an eye on all things rankings related, during each season there are usually a number of themes to follow just from a look at the various ranking lists.

For example a couple of seasons ago, it was only a matter of time before Judd Trump became number one, given the relative lack of points that he was defending compared to those above him, while last season it was the likes of Neil Robertson and Ding Junhui who were well placed to climb to the top of the list due to lesser performances two years previously.

This year has of course seen a change to a prize-money based ranking list, but the premise of a two-year rolling system remains the same and so below I take a look at a few themes that I will be following as the season progresses.

To assist, @joanneballantyn has also helped to put together the usual ‘money to defend’ lists (available here), which show which points will be coming off at each cut-off point.

Click below for more…

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