Haining Open – Starts Monday

Bingham

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…

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Tour Survival 2015/16 – Player by Player

Lines3

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…

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Tour Survival 2016: The Early Running

balls

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…

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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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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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My Ten To Follow In 2014/15

Donaldson1

A few days ago, fellow blogger Snookerbacker flagged up his ‘ten to follow’ across the course of the ongoing 2014/15 season, which you can read here.

In the interests of bloggers solidarity…or something, I decided to chip in with my ten to keep an eye on next season and today ahead of the start of the Wuxi Classic tomorrow (usual links on the right), I thought I would expand upon that and detail my choices here…

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World Championship 2014: Tour Survival Blog

Ponds1

So it begins, tomorrow will see the start of the 2014 World Championship qualifiers and with them, the climax of the race for main tour places, which I have been talking about so much during the past few months.

Though you can view my extended player-by-player guide to tour survival here, this then is the post that will be updated throughout this week’s matches, making focusing on those which could prove key to certain players hopes of remaining on the main tour for at least another season…

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