Three days down in Daqing and 64 (plus wildcards) have become just eight at the 2015 International Championship.
Click below for a round-up of some of the main stories so far and a look ahead to some mouthwatering quarter-finals…
Tag: Oliver Lines
Closing In On The Cut: October 2015
Down to the last 32 at the International Championship and we now know that Mark Selby will remain as world number one following the end of the week in Daqing, but there do still remain ranking issues to be determined ahead of this season’s third mid-season seedings revision.
Click below for a (belated) look at the current standings…
Haining Open – Starts Monday
The snooker tour resumes tomorrow with the start of this year’s Haining Open, an event won last season by Stuart Bingham who now has an impressive four Asian Tour titles to his name.
Although Stuart will not be returning to defend his title in 2015, the tournament remains one that is deceptively important for many players, more so than ever in 2015 as eight Players Championship places and two main tour cards could effectively be up for grabs this week…
Tour Survival 2015/16 – Player by Player
As the nights draw in and the clocks go back, it is also that time of the year when I take a close look at the battle for tour places from the start of the 2016/17 season. As regular readers will be well aware, to fully understand how each of the current tour players are currently placed, it is necessary to analyse a number of different ranking lists and orders of merit.
With two of the biggest money events to come in the International Championship and UK Championship tournaments, today I take my first player-by-player look at the current state of play and flag up some of the surprise names with work to do if they are to remain on tour for another season…
Tour Survival 2016: The Early Running
Two ranking tournaments into the 2015/16 campaign, already it is possible to identify some of the players who are sure of being on the main tour next season and perhaps more importantly, those whose places are at real risk.
With every pound, dollar or euro to be earned during the remainder of this season likely to be crucial, today I take my customary look at the likely qualification criteria and look at some of those to follow over the coming months…
2015/16 – Stories to Follow
While the wait goes on for information as to the various seeding cut-offs and other ranking information for the 2015/16 season, the action is now very much underway with the qualifiers for the Australian Goldfields Open this week in Crawley.
As was the case last year, it is interesting then to take a look at the current world ranking list and try to pick out a few potential stories that may well develop during the next months.
After all, already a year ago it was possible to see that Ding Junhui would have an excellent chance of claiming the world number one ranking (which he did in December), while players such as Stephen Maguire and Nigel Bond would have work to do in order to stay inside the top 16 and top 64 respectively…
Teenage Kicks
Sunday marked the 20th birthday of Luca Brecel, who for at least as long as I have written this blog, has been regarded as snooker’s most promising teenage player.
Now that he is half way on to being eligible for the World Seniors Championship however, I posed the question on Twitter as to just who is snooker’s most promising teenager at this time, with several talented young players having either already made a mark on the professional scene, or certainly having done so at amateur level.
I wrote a similar piece back in 2009 and finding it interesting to look back at how those players have so far gone on to progress in their professional careers, click below for my look at some of the most promising teenagers in the game, together with the best of your tweets…
AT3: Down To 32, Order of Merit Latest
Three days down, two to go at the third and final Asian Tour event of the 2014/15 and it is crunch time in respect of the race for all important places on the Asian Order of Merit, with both Players Championship Grand Finals and main tour places on offer for those in action this week.
Click below for a look at how results so far this week have affected the standings, with the tournament now down to the last 32 stage…