I never thought much of the Gibraltar Open. Gibraltar is a random country to host any sports tournament, let alone a snooker event. Yet it hosts prestigious sports tournaments in darts, pool and randomly, chess. Recently, they hosted the 2019 Island Games, which is a international multi-sports event featuring non-sovereign territories of European nations. Interesting.
This tournament was born in the final year of the European Players Tour Championships, a series of minor-ranking events between 2010-2016. But since it became a full ranking event, it has barely changed, keeping its BO7 format throughout the event. At least the Riga Masters, which also originated from the EPTC days, chose to increase their semi-finals and final to a BO9. The Riga Masters is the first ranking event of the season, which carries some sense of importance. The Gibraltar Open is ambiguously near the end of the season, acting like a buffer event where top players put their feet up to focus on more lucrative events before the World Championship.
Until this season.
Subplots And Side Quests
The Gibraltar Open has never been more important to snooker players.
Because the 2020 China Open has been postponed due to concerns about the coronavirus, the Gibraltar Open is the last ranking event of the calendar before the World Championship. At least, a ranking event that everybody can enter. This means that everyone is rushing to the island of Gilbratar to chase some last-ditch ranking points to budge their up the table a little.
This may be huge depending on their Crucible prospects or the number of matches they will play in the World Championship Qualifiers. For a few, this is the final chance to be among the the eight players to compete in the Tour Championship. For two players in particular, this is to top the BetVictor European Series. Also, there’s a ranking title to be won, so that’s nice.
There is £50,000 to the winner and £20,000 to the runner-up at stake! To refresh yourself, below are all of the available rankings:
Let’s look at the many races that will happen!
The Race to the Tour Championship
As mentioned before, only the eight players with the most ranking points this season can enter. Most players have already qualified for Llandudno on the 17th March. Even Yan Bingtao is safe. Currently ranked 6th on the one-year list, he is on £206,500. Mark Allen (£165,500) and John Higgins (£165,500), who are 7th and 8th respectively, are unable to both overtake Yan, so the young Chinaman is safely through.
The lowest ranked player to threaten is Kyren Wilson, who is 12th (£130,000) on the one-year list. But Wilson will need to win the title to overtake Higgins and hope that the Scotsman will lose early. 9th seed Maguire is the greatest threat, as he is just £7,500 behind Higgins.
For the one-year-ranking list, please click here.
The Race to the Crucible
Normally, the race to the Crucible would be quite simple. Normally, it is quite easy to know who needs how much to clinch the No. 16 mark in the China Open. Especially with so much money involved.
It’s now a bit of a head scratcher, as the Race to the Crucible could be confirmed in the Tour Championship.
Just £12,750 separates 15th seed Barry Hawkins and 18th seed Ali Carter, according to the latest provisional seedings. 16th seed Yan Bingtao has the significant advantage for qualifying for the Tour Championship, but for Hawkins, Carter and 17th seed Joe Perry, a good run is vital if they want to automatically qualify for the Crucible. 19th Gary Wilson could also do this, in the unlikely circumstance that Wilson wins the title while everyone else loses very early on in the next two tournaments.
The Race for Tour Survival
The below tweet can explain it a lot better than I can.
I will try and succinctly explain. The World Championship Qualifying rounds have changed into a more tiered system. Unlike last year, where everybody regardless of ranking started in the first round, whatever round a player starts in depends on their ranking. In short:
- No. 81-128 ranked + 16 WPBSA amateur players will play in Round 1.
- No. 49-80 ranked will join the Round 1 winners in Round 2.
- No. 17-48 ranked will join the Round 2 winners in Round 3.
- The Round 3 winners then play each other in the 4th and final round.
Every win could be a last-ditch successful attempt to play one fewer round in the World Championship Qualifiers. This will be huge for players who need the ranking points to set themselves up for the next season, who want a greater chance to qualify for the World Championships, and finally who want to stay on tour as a professional snooker player.
The Race to win the BetVictor European Series
This is the most pointless race of the lot. I already made my feelings about the BetVictor European Series, which you can read by clicking here.
The BetVictor European Series has achieved one of its main objectives, which is to encourage elite players to participate in smaller events. That’s the main reason why Neil Robertson and Judd Trump, the leading series players, are in Gibraltar in the first place.
But it already feels as if we know the likely winner. Robertson is leading the series rankings on £115,000, with second placed Trump on £80,000. Trump would need to reach at least the final and rely on Robertson to drop a clanger. Robertson has already won the European Masters and reached the final of the German Masters, two of the biggest tournaments in the BetVictor European Series. It feels as though the race to win the additional £150,000 is already won by the Australian, which is a shame and a bit of an anticlimax. Touch wood.
The Draw
I think I have blabbed on enough, so the draw is on the World Snooker website. You can access it by clicking here.
Defending champion Stuart Bingham will face Gerard Greene in the first round. The out-of-form Ryan Day, who reached the final four of the Gibraltar Open in the past three years and won in 2018, will be against rising star Luo Honghao.
Few players including Ronnie O’Sullivan, Shaun Murphy and Ding Junhui are not participating. This means there are spaces in the main draw for plenty of amateurs to qualify and hopefully make an impressive scalp.
The 2020 Gibraltar Open runs from March 13th – 15th (preceded by the amateur rounds on March 11th -12th ).
