World Snooker Seedings 2016/17: Revision Four Round-Up
Following two consecutive seedings cut-offs that saw no significant changes to the rankings, this week there are key movements across the list after Mark Selby’s victory at the International Championship.
Already the fourth revision of the current season, the new list will be used to determine the seedings for the Northern Ireland Open and the UK Championship events later this month.
- View the updated rankings at the fourth mid-season seedings revision
- Read how the World Snooker ranking list works
Number 1
- NO CHANGE
By taking his ninth ranking event victory yesterday in Daqing, Mark Selby has extended his lead at the top of the world rankings over Stuart Bingham to a mammoth £282,096.
While Bingham could not have overtaken Selby regardless of the outcome in China, victory against the long-time number one in their semi-final meeting could have seen him make significant inroads into the lead. As Selby reeled off six consecutive frames however, before going on to dominate Ding Junhui in the final, his lead is now so great that even if Stuart were to win both the upcoming events in Northern Ireland and York, he would still not have enough in the bank to overhaul the reigning world champion.
In terms of the other challengers, Judd Trump is up one place to third thanks to his strong showings in Bucharest and Manchester earlier in the month, while Ding climbs two to fourth despite his final hammering at the hands of Selby.
The Top 16
IN
- Liang Wenbo
OUT
- Ricky Walden
Chinese number two Liang Wenbo is back up into the top 16 for the first time this season on the back of his maiden ranking event success at the recent English Open in Manchester. Having previously had short spells just inside the top 16 mark, now up into a career-high 11th position he will be hoping to establish himself among the world’s best for a more sustained period.
Making way for Liang is perhaps surprisingly Ricky Walden, who plunges from eighth position following the Shanghai Masters, to 17th a month on. This is because as he was the winner of the International Championship back in 2014, he now sees the £125,000 that he earned back then drop off his ranking event total.
The target for Walden will now be to get back inside the top 16 ahead of the next cut-off, which as well as dictating the tournament seedings for two ranking events, will also decide who qualifies for the Masters in January. Ahead of him is Mark Williams, who also drops three places to 16th as he was a semi-finalist two years ago in Chengdu.
17-32
IN
- Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
OUT
- Peter Ebdon
Having been knocking on the door for a number of weeks, Thailand’s Thepchaiya Un-Nooh is now up inside the world’s top 32 for the first time in his career. Ironically, the promotion comes on the back of a four-tournament losing streak which has seen him unable to add to his ranking tally, however he has still done enough over the current two-year period to climb up the list.
He nudges out former world champion Peter Ebdon, who won 11 matches during October 2014 and now sees that prize money removed from his total.
33-64
IN
- Alfie Burden
OUT
- Jamie Burnett
We also see the first change to the top 64 during the 2016/17 season so far as Alfie Burden becomes the first player who started their current two-year tour card back in May 2015 to break into the the crucial top 64. If he can remain there at the end of the season he will retain his place on tour for a further season and in the meantime should benefit from a more favourable seeding at some tournaments.
Dropping out is long-time professional Jamie Burnett, who has not competed on the tour since the Indian Open earlier this season.
