Champion of Champions 2016 – June Update
The Champion of Champions tournament will return to Coventry this November as the event is staged at the Ricoh Arena for a fourth time. As previously, qualification will be determined by the winners of professional tournaments dating back to Neil Robertson’s victory at the event in 2015, events having been ordered in a specific line of priority.
Players currently qualified are set out below, numbered by qualification priority, not seeding:
1. 2015 Champion of Champions – Neil Robertson (1)
2. 2015 UK Championship – Neil Robertson
3. 2016 Masters – Ronnie O’Sullivan (2)
4. 2016 German Masters – Martin Gould (3)
5. 2016 Welsh Open – Ronnie O’Sullivan
6. 2016 Championship League Snooker – Judd Trump (4)
7. 2016 World Grand Prix – Shaun Murphy (5)
8. 2016 Players Championship – Mark Allen (6)
9. 2016 China Open – Judd Trump
10. 2016 World Championship – Mark Selby (7)
11. 2016 Indian Open (July) – tbc
12. 2016 World Open (July) – tbc
13. 2016 Shanghai Masters (Sept) – tbc
14. 2016 European Championship (Oct) – tbc
15. 2016 English Open (Oct) – tbc
16. 2016 International Championship (Oct) – tbc
17. 2015 Gibraltar Open – Marco Fu (8)
18. 2016 Gdynia Open – Mark Selby
19. 2016 Riga Masters – Neil Robertson
20. 2016 Paul Hunter Classic (Aug) – tbc
21. 2016 Shoot Out – Robin Hull (9)
22. 2016 6 Reds World Championship (Sep) – tbc
23. 2016 World Seniors Championship – Mark Davis (10)
In short, with 15 of the 23 qualifying events now completed we have ten individual players currently in line to qualify. Victory for Michael Holt in Riga yesterday would have made it 11, but a third qualifying win for Neil Robertson means that of the eight remaining events, six must be won by players not already qualified above, to avoid a shortfall with 16 players set to be invited to Coventry.
The position compares to last year when there were 19 different winners from 27 qualifying events, meaning that Ding Junhui, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Mark Williams missed out despite winning tournament during the qualification period.
In terms of rankings, notable players still to qualify for Coventry include world number two and former runner-up Stuart Bingham, four-time world champion John Higgins, Ricky Walden and recent Crucible finalist Ding Junhui.
The next place will be decided in India, with the winner in Hyderabad guaranteed a place at the Champion of Champions.
