Race to Preston
And so with 13 counting events completed in this season’s Race to Preston, there is just one to go as the field will be set for the Ladbrokes World Grand Prix following the conclusion of the Coral Shoot Out on Sunday evening.
Continue reading for a reminder of the qualifying criteria and who is currently set to qualify…
Who will qualify?
The top 32 players on the one-year ranking list will successfully qualify to play at the World Grand Prix later this month.
Unlike the official world ranking list which is calculated over a rolling two-year period, the one-year ranking list used to determine qualification for Preston includes only prize money earned since the start of this season at the 2017 Riga Masters, through to and including the 2018 Shoot Out in Watford.
This does not include prize money earned from maximum or high break prizes, or invitational events such as the Hong Kong Masters.
The state of play
With just one event to be completed the current one-year ranking list can be viewed HERE.
Updated position as of 11/02/2018:
28th – Ricky Walden – £61,600
29th – Michael Georgiou – £61,500
30th – Michael White – £61,500
31st – Stuart Bingham – £58,500
32nd – Robert Milkins – £57,000
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33rd – Tom Ford – £55,225
34th – Ben Woollaston – £53,500
35th– Liang Wenbo – £53,000
36th – Zhou Yuelong – £51,500 (r16 minimum)
36th – Hossein Vafaei – £48,500
37th – Kurt Maflin – £48,100 (SF minimum)
38th– Sunny Akani – £47,500 (F minimum)
39th– Barry Hawkins – £46,500 (F minimum)
40th – Lyu Haotian – £46,000 (SF minimum)
41st– Elliot Slessor – £46,000 (F minimum)
42nd– Matt Selt – £45,000 (F minimum)
43rd – Ken Doherty – £44,500 (F minimum)
44th– Alan McManus – £42,500 (F minimum)
45th– Mark Davis – £43,500 (title needed)
47th– Mike Dunn – £42,000 (F minimum)
50th– Michael Holt – £39,500 (F minimum)
As was the case heading into the venue stages of the German Masters last week, there are seven players ranked within the world’s official top 32 who are currently set to miss out on qualification for the World Grand Prix.
Of these, Liang Wenbo (34) and Marco Fu (45) have not entered the tournament, whilst of the remaining five all but Zhou Yuelong (35) must reach at least the final in Watford to stand any chance. This includes defending World Grand Prix champion Barry Hawkins (40), currently £9,000 behind 32nd placed Ben Woollaston on the one-year list.
In fact while several players could theoretically break into the top 32 with a deep run at the Shoot Out, only Tom Ford stands within a single match of potentially overhauling fellow Leicester player Ben Woollaston, as illustrated by the list above.
The Coral Shoot Out runs from 8-11 February at the Watford Colosseum, following which the field for Preston will be set.
