Race to the Masters 2019: Two to Go

Following Mark Allen’s victory at the International Championship yesterday there are now just two ranking events to go before the all-important seeding cut-off to determine the field for this season’s Dafabet Masters.

• View the latest standings in the Race to the Masters
• View the prize money schedule for the 2018/19 season

Snooker’s premier invitational event returns to the Alexandra Palace from 13-20 January 2019 and will feature the world’s top 16 ranked players following next month’s UK Championship. This period therefore includes all prize money earned at ranking events from the 2016 Scottish Open up to and including the 2018 UK Championship in York. These points are illustrated on the latest Race to the Masters table.

Following our previous update prior to last week’s tournament in Daqing we have seen Jack Lisowski (£268,600) make a significant move with his semi-final run seeing him break into the provisional top 16 in the Race to the Masters for the first time. The 27-year-old moves above Marco Fu (£266,000), who he actually defeated at the last 32 stage on his way to earning a career-best equalling £32,000 last week, by just £2,600 heading into the final two counting events.

Behind Fu, former world number two Ali Carter (£250,750) also closed the gap to 16th position with a quarter-final run at the International Championship, while the likes of Anthony McGill (£242,525), Joe Perry (233,900), David Gilbert (£226,150), Yan Bingtao (£220,525) and Graeme Dott (£218,000) also remain within range if they can go deep at either the Northern Ireland Open or UK Championship.

Looking at the other players above Lisowski and looking to make sure of their places, Scotland’s Stephen Maguire (£289,525) currently occupies 15th position is some £23,525 clear of closest challenger Fu. While undoubtedly well-placed, it is not impossible that he and perhaps one or two of the players above him could yet be sweating on their Masters places heading to York later this month and looking for a few more wins to make absolutely sure.

The next counting event will be the Northern Ireland Open to be held at the Belfast Waterfront from 12-18 November and the draw for that tournament is available to view online here.

Follow our Race to the Masters table for all of the latest updates during the coming weeks…