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

Selby

Ricky Walden’s win at the International Championship today yesterday brought us to the third mid-season seedings revision of the 2014/15 season, with Mark Selby retaining his spot at number one, but with points to defend at the upcoming UK Championship, he faces a battle if he is going to stay there.

Click below for a round-up of all of the key changes to the seeding list…

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Carter Set To Return At General Cup

CarterFu

Although this week will not see the return of ranking event snooker following the postponement of the Indian Open, there will be action for a few of the professionals at least, as the General Cup is staged in Hong Kong for the sixth time.

While there is a strong line-up across the board, clearly the main talking point is that of the return of Ali Carter, who will play his first professional match since the World Championship on Monday morning against Marco Fu.

I’m sure that I speak for all of us here in the snooker community of fans and players alike that it is brilliant to see him back in action after his treatment for cancer and hopefully we will soon see him on our TV screens at events such as the UK Championship before the end of the year.

You can view all of the latest scores and group standings, as ever, here at snookerorg.

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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General Cup International 2014: Line-up Confirmed



Next month will see the sixth staging of the invitational General Cup International tournament at the General Snooker Club in Hong Kong, the event set to run from 12-18 October 2014, with eight top professionals amongst those involved…

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

Selby1

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…

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Tour Survival 2015: The Early Running

balls2

While the end of the 2014/15 season feels like a long way off, with a two-year ranking list, in reality we are over halfway through the race for main tour places for the 2015/16 season.

With every pound, dollar or Euro earned during this season potentially crucial, already some eyes will be turning to the latest provisional end of season rankings and even from a quick glance, there are some surprising names who despite being apparently safe on the official ranking list, are in fact in the danger zone due to the points that they will be losing over the coming nine months.

So with a couple of ranking events down and two of the season’s six European Tour events completed, below I take an early look at how the race for main tour places next year is shaping up and how players can survive – assuming that there are no as yet unannounced changes to the tour qualification structure…

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