Gould Back Into The Top 16 With Berlin Win

Martin Gould will climb back into the world’s top 16 for the first time since 2012 when the official rankings are revised on Monday following his victory at the 2016 918.com German Masters.

The ‘Pinner Potter’ began the week ranked in 20th position but will climb five places to 15th place having earned £60,000 by claiming his first full-ranking event title at the Tempodrom in Berlin.

Victory also leaves Gould well placed to earn an automatic seeding for the Betfred World Championship in April (more on the race to the Crucible in a subsequent blog), for only the second time in his career.

Though Luca Brecel will be disappointed to have lost out in the final, the £26,250 earned by the 20-year-old Belgian will see him rise into the world’s top 32 for the first time at 28th position.

Other notable movers include losing semi-finalist Kyren Wilson, who rises to also rises to a new career-high of 19th position, while on the other side of the coin 2014 Berlin champion Ding Junhui falls to his lowest position for six years in 12th.

Five-time world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan climbs one position to fifth despite his absence (as a player at least), in Berlin this week. This is because Judd Trump drops a place as he was defending runner-up prize money from 2014 when he lost in the final to Ding.

The new ranking list will be used to determine the seedings for the upcoming China Open and BetVictor Welsh Open tournaments.

Check back here at WPBSA.com for more ranking related blogs this week as I look towards the race to the Crucible, World Grand Prix and more as we enter the business end of the 2015/16 season.