Following John Higgins’ victory at the Australian Goldfields Open yesterday, the official world rankings will now be revised for the first time this season with the Scot moving up a place to 12th, while runner-up Martin Gould also climbs one position to 25th.
Continue reading for confirmation of all of they key changes to the seeding list, which will now be used to determine the seedings for the Shanghai Masters…
- Click here to view the final standings at the first mid-season seedings revision
Number 1
As we already knew ahead of the action in Bendigo, Mark Selby remains at the head of the ranking list ahead of nearest challenger Stuart Bingham.
Looking ahead, with a lead of nearly £140,000 to Stuart in the new projected seedings list through to the conclusion of September’s Shanghai Masters, we can already see that Selby is guaranteed to retain the number one ranking at least until the conclusion of that tournament.
The Top 16
IN
- Michael White
OUT
- Robert Milkins
Moving up back into the top 16 following his quarter-final run in Bendigo is Michael White, who you may recall only dropped out at the end of last season following his surprise defeat to Craig Steadman at the World Championship qualifiers back in April.
He leapfrogs Robert Milkins, who due to the deduction of his points from reaching both the semi-finals of the 2013 Wuxi Classic and 2013 Australian Goldfields Open drops three places to 19th at this cut-off point.
The good news for Milkins at least is that with so many points coming off his total at this early stages of the season, he now has relatively little to defend for the remainder of the season, meaning that he can be expected to challenge for a top 16 spot again later in the season.
17-32
IN
- Jamie Jones
- Gary Wilson
OUT
- Ben Woollaston
- Matthew Stevens
Prior to the start of the Australian Goldfields Open, Jamie Jones needed to reach the quarter-finals of the tournament if he was to break into the top 32 ahead of the Shanghai Masters, but he would of course go on to reach one round further, making his first ranking event semi-final in Bendigo.
The achievement is not an insignificant one either, as he will now have to win just one qualifying match to make it to the venue stages in Shanghai, rather than three had he finished outside of the top 32.
The same applies to Gary Wilson, who moves up two places to a career-high ranking of 32nd, despite a 5-3 loss to Joel Walker in qualifying for Australia that meant he would not make it to the venue.
Dropping out of the top 32 at this cut-off are Ben Woollaston and Matthew Stevens, although finishing 33rd and 34th, they are best placed to benefit in the event that any higher ranked players decide against entering the Shanghai Masters for any reason.
33-64
NO CHANGE
With those beginning the new season ranked outside of the world’s top 64 either on zero points or with points from only the 2014/15 season to their name, unsurprisingly none have yet been able to break into that bracket after just one event.
The nearest man to doing so at present is Sam Baird, who is closing in on 64th placed Cao Yupeng, but otherwise the remaining chasers have a gap of at least £10,000 to bridge.
The next seeding revision will come on the 21st September 2015 following the venue stages of the Shanghai Masters.