Race To The Crucible – Two Events To Go
This week’s Ladbrokes Players Championship in Llandudno is the penultimate event before the seeding cut off falls for the Betfred World Championship.
Click here for the updated race to the Crucible
Who will be in the top 16 at the Crucible?
Ryan Day earned the 16th and last spot in Llandudno and that means he is guaranteed £10,000, even if he loses to Mark Selby in the first round in North Wales.
Day is also in 16th spot on the race to the Crucible list, and he is £15,387 ahead of 17th-placed Joe Perry. However, Day has not qualified for the final counting event, the China Open, and there are nine players immediately below him on the list who have all made it to Beijing.
So an early defeat for Day this week will leave him hoping that results go his way in China if he is to become one of the 16 players guaranteed an automatic spot at the Crucible, with everyone else needing to win three matches at Ponds Forge to make it to Sheffield’s Theatre of Dreams.
Mark King and Anthony Hamilton are the only players outside the top 16 in that list who are in Llandudno this week, so a deep run could boost their hopes of a Crucible spot, especially with a top prize of £125,000 up for grabs. Mark Allen and Kyren Wilson are the two players inside the provisional ranking list who have missed out on the trip to North Wales.
Shaun Murphy’s victory in the Jojobet.com Gibraltar Open was his first ranking title of the season and moves him up one place on the official two-year list to fourth.
Nigel Bond reached the semi-finals in Gibraltar to move up to 70th place on the one-year ranking list. At the end of the season there will be tour cards available for the top eight players on the one-year list who are outside the top 64 on the two year list.
Tickets for the Ladbrokes Players Championship are still available – for details click here. And there are also tickets on sale to see the Betfred World Championship qualifiers as players battle for places at the Crucible – for details click here.