Closing in on the Cut: October 2017

The next piece of ranking event silverware will be presented following the conclusion of next week’s European Masters in Belgium and with it comes the third seeding revision of the current season to determine the list for the upcoming English Open.

• View the draw for the European Masters
  
• View the latest provisional seedings
• View the prize money schedule for events this season

On 9 October 2017 following the European Masters, the current seedings list will be revised and used to determine the seedings for the 2017 English Open.

By the time of the revision, prize money earned from the 2015 ET1, Australian Goldfields Open, ET2, Shanghai Masters and AT1 will have been deducted and replaced by that from this season’s events up to that date.

As always, we have already removed the points to be deducted from the appropriate column on the latest provisional seedings list, to show the situation as up to date as possible.

Note that points earned during this week’s International Championship qualifiers will NOT count towards this seedings revision.

Battle for Number 1

Unsurprisingly, runaway world number one Mark Selby is already guaranteed to remain at the top of the rankings following this event, regardless of the outcome in Lommel. With this particular cut-off set to determine the seeding list for the English Open however, it is important to note that it will be Liang Wenbo who will be installed as top seed following his victory at the event a year ago.

Behind Selby on the list, Ding Junhui leapt up to second place following his victory at the World Open in Yushan last week, but not in action next week could be overtaken again by John Higgins if the Scot is able to capture his second ranking title of the season.

The Top Eight

In terms of the ranking list at least, six players are assured of remaining inside of the top eight for the English Open, with Barry Hawkins and Neil Robertson still able to be caught by Mark Allen and in Robertson’s case, Stuart Bingham and Luca Brecel as well.

For Hawkins, he will remain inside the top eight unless Allen is able to win the title with Robertson reaching the semi-finals, while Allen, Bingham or Brecel would need to win the title for Robertson to be caught.

With Liang Wenbo seeded number 1 however, Robertson as it stands would actually be seeded ninth for the tournament, so would need to reach the last four to overtake the absent Hawkins and secure a top eight seeding for Barnsley.

The Top 16

Without doubt the most significant cut-off for this event is the top 16, despite there being no pre-qualifying event for the tournament with all 128 starting out at the venue.

This is because like last year, the Home Nations Series events will adopt a seeding structure which will see the top 16 seeds kept apart and positioned in the draw, with all of the remaining 112 drawn randomly. As a result, players seeded inside the top 16 are guaranteed to draw a lower ranked player during the first round, whereas anybody from 17th downwards could face the likes of Mark Selby and Ding Junhui at the very start.

With the top 15 already assured of top 16 positions ahead of the trip to Barnsley, the one man still in danger is 16th placed Anthony McGill, who with an early exit in Lommel could be caught by six of the chasing pack.

Closest to him is Welshman Ryan Day, who must reach at least the last 16 next week, while Mark Williams must make at least the quarter-finals if he is to stand any chance of catching the Scot. 19th placed David Gilbert must go further still to the final, while Mark King, Martin Gould and Joe Perry must go all the way to the title if they are to break into the top 16 at this cut-off.

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