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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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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Tour Survival 2015: The Early Running

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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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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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