Dafabet Masters Qualifiers Confirmed
The 16 qualifiers for January’s Dafabet Masters have now been confirmed following the latest results at the Betway UK Championship this week in York.
With five places still to be mathematically confirmed heading into the tournament, Stuart Bingham, Ryan Day, Luca Brecel, Stephen Maguire and Jack Lisowski have all now booked their places at the Alexandra Palace with the final field now set:
- Mark Allen
- Mark Williams
- Mark Selby
- Ronnie O’Sullivan
- John Higgins
- Judd Trump
- Barry Hawkins
- Ding Junhui
- Neil Robertson
- Kyren Wilson
- Shaun Murphy
- Stuart Bingham
- Ryan Day
- Stephen Maguire
- Luca Brecel
- Jack Lisowski
With defending champion Mark Allen installed as top seed ahead of reigning world champion Mark Williams, the remaining 14 players will qualify on account of their world rankings after this tournament.
There will be one debutant this year, Jack Lisowski capitalising on his career-best start to the season to break into the world’s top 16 for the first time. Also returning having missed out in 2018 are of course Neil Robertson, Stuart Bingham and Stephen Maguire, all of whom have reached at least the last 16 of the UK Championship this week.
Among those who will not be returning from this January are 2011 runner-up Marco Fu, who will miss out on the tournament for the first time since 2013, as well as Anthony McGill, Liang Wenbo and Ali Carter. Also absent will be Joe Perry, who has not competed at the event since finishing as runner-up to Ronnie O’Sullivan two years ago.
Tournament seeding
The top eight in the seeding list following the UK Championship will be randomly drawn against the players seeded 9-16 in the opening round draw. At the time of writing, we do not know for certain who will be in the top eight, with Stuart Bingham still in with a chance of overtaking Ding Junhui for 8th position if he can win the title.
Once his position is known, either on Saturday evening should he lose in the semi-finals to Mark Allen, or Sunday if he makes it to the final, the list will be finalised ahead of the first round draw. The timing of the draw will depend on results during the final two days in York.
