WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: A summary

Well, wasn’t the China Open a good tournament! Lots of brilliant breaks, Hossein Vafaei making history by being the first Iranian to reach the semi-finals of a ranking tournament and a fantastic win for Mark Selby, not only by winning against top-quality opponents, but saved Ryan Day’s blushes by preventing finalist Mark Williams from taking the automatic place at the Crucible. Ryan Day must be sweating more than the PwC people who realised they messed up the envelopes revealing the winner of the Best Picture award!

Top 16

Now, the seeds of the Crucible is now confirmed: Assuming they all make it to the 2^nd round, it is thus:

Mark Selby (1) vs. Ryan Day (16)

Neil Robertson (9) vs. Marco Fu (8)

Shaun Murphy (5) vs. Ronnie O’Sullivan (12)

Liang Wenbo (13) vs. Ding Junhui (4)

Stuart Bingham (3) vs. Kyren Wilson (14)

Mark Allen (11) vs. John Higgins (6)

Barry Hawkins (7) vs. Ali Carter (10)

Anthony McGill (15) vs. Judd Trump (2)

The first half of the draw looks very hellish indeed. The second quarter in particular (Ding, Murphy, O’Sullivan, Liang) looks like the Group of Death, if you will. If all draw ended up meeting together, I can only see two clear winners based on record and form. O’Sullivan has an exceptional head-to-head record against Murphy and Selby seems to be very comfortable against Day. Robertson vs. Fu could be an explosive fight and McGill vs. Trump should be a fantastic match, considering these are two young players facing each other in the world’s greatest stage. Trump should count himself lucky that Mark Williams didn’t win the China Open, as he would’ve been his Last 16 opponent instead.

Now, I will do predictions of the World Champion qualifiers, but that is for another day. Now this is just a summary of the World Qualifiers – such as who is involved in the battle to stay on tour via the Top 64 route and who can get through the One-year ranking list. Also, did the China Open make any impact at all?

A lot shall be explained, but first we need to note down the prize money in the qualifying stages. This is seriously important.

Last 32: £16,000

Last 48: £12,000

Last 80: £8,000

The fight for the Top 64

For my predictions, please follow this link: https://clusterofredssnookerblog.wordpress.com/2017/04/04/world-championship-predictions/. For more analysis on the qualifiers, please continue down!

Here are the provisional rankings so far, meaning that all money from 2014/2015 season has been wiped (please see: http://www.wpbsa.com/rankings/latest-provisional-eos-rankings/)

It is scary that one qualifier win worth 8,000 points can mean your place and points are safe for next season. This is especially the case for Robin Hull (vs. Reanne Evans) and Ross Muir (vs. Gareth Allen), though Scott Donaldson is already in his first year on his two-year card, so he is safe regardless.

This of course depends on the outcome of the people who are at the edge of the cliff. Gary Wilson (vs. Josh Boileau), Chris Wakelin (vs. Elliot Slessor) and Hossein Vafaei (vs. Hatem Yassen) are the ones in red hot danger but lucky for them, their opponents aren’t threatening enough, though Wakelin & Slessor could be a poser. Yan like Donaldson and Zhang on this list are in his first year on his two-year card.

The task is much more difficult for those ranked 68 and below, as one win even if Wilson, Wakelin and Vafaei lose their matches will not be enough to overtake them, meaning a mix of winning their matches and relying on other results is the ‘point of no return’ route or even better, nicking a spot by qualifying to the Crucible altogether. That is exactly what Robbie Williams did in the 2013/2014 season – he propelled himself from No. 67 to No. 61 by beating Fergal O’Brien in his final qualifying match – pushing Michael Wasley to relegation.

You would think for all of these individuals who fail to get into the Top 64 are done for, right? Dead as a dodo? Buggered as Paul Nuttall? Forgotten like a X Factor winner? Well…

The one year ranking list

For those who are outside the Top 64, there is an alternative route to regain their professional status – Jimmy White fans, take note: he needs to get to the Top 8 of this table to keep his tour card. This based is points they achieved in the 2016/2017 season alone.

This is where it can all turn on its head. There are such small margins that just one win and a big cheque of £8,000 is enough to keep your tour card, no matter what ranking you are. Even Igor Figueiredo needs to win against John Astley and depending on other results can earn his two-year card.

My apologies for the long list. I am not mistaking this for my shopping list, looking for Maltesers, yoghurt and beef mince. Or, since I am running the marathon: kidney beans, porridge and salmon fillets.

The China Open influenced this table for one very single reason: Hossein Vafaei. His semi-final run took him to the Top 64 for the first time, meaning that he is not in this list anymore. If he drops out of the Top 64, then he will take the top spot of the one-year ranking list here. This gets more complicated if the likes of Robin Hull has done enough to qualify either through the Top 64 or by taking one of the places of the one-year system at the expense of another snooker player. Simple, huh? 🙂

There is one advantage that separates these players fighting for their careers. The likes of Rod Lawler, Jamie Cope and Joe Swail are in the Top 80, meaning they are more likely to play lower-ranking players and amateurs while players such as Jimmy White, Eden Sharav and Sanderson Lam will be against higher-achieving players, which would seriously hamper their progress. This is what makes ties such as Cope vs. Sharav and Swail vs. Lam a lot more interesting and significant, as one’s potential success to stay on tour for dear life can destroy your losing opponent’s chances of survival.

We clear? Good. A lot to digest and let’s all look forward to Wednesday! 🙂