Three days in to the Wuxi Classic and we are down to the last 16 stage, with world champion Mark Selby the most notable casualty so far, not withstanding Ding’s qualifying exit last month in Gloucester.
Click below for a round-up of the main stories so far, as well as a reminder of all of the useful links to follow…
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…
Five years ago following John Higgins’ victory at the 2009 World Championship at the Crucible, following a similar feature prepared by the BBC, I wrote a blog, predicting how the top eight of the world rankings would look in 2014.
Having been reminded of the article earlier during this year’s World Championship, now exactly five years on I take a look back at accurate my predictions were, all well as attempting to predict how the top eight will look in another five years in 2019…
As the dust settles on Mark Selby’s memorable World Championship victory at the Crucible Theatre, it’s time to look back on the best of my photos from this year’s tournament, including those of the venue, backstage and the people involved in the action…
Amongst the other announcements today, it has also been confirmed that the Champion of Champions tournament will return this November, the official press release for which you can find below.
Interestingly however, the qualification process for the tournament has also been confirmed, click below for more details…
The three day gap between the conclusion of the final qualifying round for this year’s World Championship and the start of play tomorrow morning at the Crucible makes the job of previewing the tournament ever-more difficult.
But this year I am hopeful that I have been able to do the tournament justice, thanks to the help of former world number 3, turned highly respected snooker analyst Neal Foulds, who spoke with me this morning to help preview each of the 16 opening round matches and offer his thoughts as to who will be lifting the famous trophy on 5th May 2014…
Three days down at the 2014 Players Championship Grand Finals and we have seen the top four players in the rankings, as well as reigning world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan crash out before the quarter-final stages.
Click below for a round-up of the main stories so far…
Following the conclusion of the 2014 Haikou World Open yesterday, the picture is now somewhat clearer as far as the World Championship seedings are concerned, with the identity of the top 16 players seeded through to the Crucible Theatre now confirmed.
Still, there are still changes that can occur during the upcoming Players Championship Grand Finals tournament in Preston, both to the placing of the seeds in the main draw and also the top 64 bracket…