Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Back after a short break and the World Championships start

After a break from updating the Professional Snooker Elo Ratings due to work commitments and travelling to Wembley to watch Everton's victory in the F.A. Cup Semi final, I'm now back up to speed and updating the ratings whilst the World Championship is in progress.

But first, let's get the ratings updated following the 2009 Bank of Beijing China Open. Peter Ebdon moves back into the top 16 thanks to his victory in Beijing, rising 14 places from 25th into 11th spot in the rankings. John Higgins regains 2nd spot from Ali Carter thanks to his final appearance and stands just 43 rating points behind Ronnie O'Sullivan who keeps hold of top spot.

Ryan Day's semi final appearance sees him cement his place in the top 10 and he moves up 4 places into 6th spot.

Despite losing his qualifying match in Beijing, Liang Wenbo moves up 6 places thanks to his performances in the qualifying rounds of the Betfred.com World Championship and he now lies in 20th spot, just 34 rating points behind Matthew Stevens in 16th. But with Stevens failing to qualify for Sheffield, several players behind him who will be appearing are looking to move into the top 16 - including Stephen Hendry and Mark Allen.

Ricky Walden's performance in China sees him regain the lead in the race for the Player of the Season title. With the previous leader, Judd Trump, crashing out to Tang Jung in the Wild Card round - Ricky's lead over 2nd placed Dave Harold is quite big at 51 points, however don't count out John Higgins just yet. The Scot is in 3rd place in the race and is 58 points behind Ricky which could easily be overhauled depending on what happens in Sheffield.

And don't forget, that the blog will be providing a round-by-round update to the state of play in the races to be number 1 and the Player of the Year.