Field Set For Dafabet Masters
Following defeat for Mark Davis against Judd Trump yesterday at the quarter-final stages of the 2014 Coral UK Championship, we now know who will be competing at this season’s Dafabet Masters in January.
Normally, the top 16 players in the world rankings following the conclusion of the Coral UK Championship on Sunday would qualify for the Dafabet Masters, however this year the position is slightly different, with Ali Carter’s seeding having been frozen at 13 for the remainder of the 2014/15 season, following his treatment for lung cancer earlier this year.
This year therefore, we will effectively see the world’s top 15 ranked players after the Coral UK Championship, plus Carter, qualify for the tournament.
Looking at the provisional ranking list for after this tournament, that is the rankings including all prize money earned from the 2013 World Open, up to and including the 2014 Coral UK Championship, there are now no players remaining in the draw this week who can threaten the position of Robert Milkins, who occupies the 16th and final seeding.
This means that at it stands, prior to the semi-finals this week in York, the seedings for the Dafabet Masters currently look like this (players still in the Coral UK Championship bolded):
- Ding Junhui
- Neil Robertson
- Mark Selby
- Ronnie O’Sullivan
- Barry Hawkins
- Mark Allen
- Stuart Bingham
- Ricky Walden
- Marco Fu
- Shaun Murphy
- Judd Trump
- Stephen Maguire
- Ali Carter
- Joe Perry
- John Higgins
- Robert Milkins
A further important consideration however is as to how the players will be seeded for the Dafabet Masters, with there set to be a draw, which it is hoped will be able to take place tomorrow, for the opening round draw of the tournament. This will see the top eight seeds, drawn at random against the bottom eight seeds, so in theory at least, it will be better to be amongst the top eight than not.
What can still change?
At the moment, Ricky Walden holds on to the eighth and final place in that bracket, but would miss out, should either Judd Trump reach the final of the Coral UK Championship this weekend, or if his semi-final opponent Stephen Maguire go on to successfully win the tournament, ten years after his first success at the Barbican Centre.
Either way, we will know tomorrow…
