WST published this a couple of hours ago:
The full list of players for the 2020 Betfred World Championship is now available.
The qualifying rounds will feature 128 players, all battling for one of 16 coveted spots at the Crucible Theatre. The qualifying event will run from July 21 to 28 at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. The draw will be available this week.
The 16 winners then go through to the Crucible to meet the top 16 seeds, for the main event which runs from July 31 to August 16.
Several players ranked outside the top 16 decided not to enter the qualifying event (read more on that here) and they have been replaced as follows:
- The eight players competing in the Challenge Tour Play-Off event, to be staged on July 20.
- The top eight players from the 2019 Q School ranking list.
- Players invited by the WPBSA.
Full list of players, in seeding order:
1. Judd Trump
2. Neil Robertson
3. Mark Williams
4. Mark Allen
5. John Higgins
6. Ronnie O’Sullivan
7. Mark Selby
8. Kyren Wilson
9. Stephen Maguire
10. Shaun Murphy
11. Ding Junhui
12. David Gilbert
13. Jack Lisowski
14. Stuart Bingham
15. Barry Hawkins
16. Yan Bingtao
17. Joe Perry
18. Ali Carter
19. Gary Wilson
20. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
21. Graeme Dott
22. Scott Donaldson
23. Jimmy Robertson
24. Michael Holt
25. Tom Ford
26. Matthew Selt
27. Lyu Haotian
28. Matthew Stevens
29. Mark Davis
30. Martin O’Donnell
31. Liang Wenbo
32. Hossein Vafaei
33. Ryan Day
34. Luca Brecel
35. Ben Woollaston
36. Anthony McGill
37. Ricky Walden
38. Noppon Saengkham
39. Kurt Maflin
40. Stuart Carrington
41. Mark King
42. Robert Milkins
43. Anthony Hamilton
44. Chris Wakelin
45. Lu Ning
46. Daniel Wells
47. Alan McManus
48. Tian Pengfei
49. Sunny Akani
50. Robbie Williams
51. Andrew Higginson
52. Liam Highfield
53. Martin Gould
54. Sam Craigie
55. Michael Georgiou
56. Ken Doherty
57. Luo Honghao
58. Joe O’Connor
59. Michael White
60. Mark Joyce
61. Jak Jones
62. Elliot Slessor
63. Fergal O’Brien
64. Craig Steadman
65. Jordan Brown
66. Alfie Burden
67. Mike Dunn
68. Sam Baird
69. John Astley
70. Nigel Bond
71. Lee Walker
72. Oliver Lines
73. Ian Burns
74. Ashley Carty
75. Harvey Chandler
76. David Grace
77. Dominic Dale
78. Alexander Ursenbacher
79. Louis Heathcote
80. Jamie Clarke
81. Mitchell Mann
82. Kishan Hirani
83. Chen Feilong
84. Fan Zhengyi
85. Hammad Miah
86. Jackson Page
87. Si Jiahui
88. Thor Chuan Leong
89. Gerard Greene
90. Soheil Vahedi
91. Eden Sharav
92. Igor Figueiredo
93. James Cahill
94. Kacper Filipiak
95. Adam Stefanow
96. Billy Castle
97. Barry Pinches
98. Rod Lawler
99. David Lilley
100. Brandon Sargeant
101. Simon Lichtenberg
102. Jamie O’Neill
103. Duane Jones
104. Peter Lines
105. Fraser Patrick
106. Jimmy White
107. Andy Hicks
108. Amine Amiri
109. Alex Borg
110. Riley Parsons
111. Ashley Hugill
112. Lukas Kleckers
113. Andrew Pagett
114. Aaron Hill
115. Ross Bulman
116. Iulian Boiko
117. Sean Maddocks
118. Reanne Evans
119. Dylan Emery
120. Ross Muir
121. Dean Young
122. Ben Mertens
123. Wu Yize
124. Hayden Staniland
125. Brian Ochoiski
126. Connor Benzey
127. Adam Duffy
128. Oliver Brown
129. Allan Taylor
130. Patrick Whelan
131. Rory McLeod
132. Jake Nicholson
133. Tyler Rees
134. Ian Preece
135. Paul Davison
136. Hamza Akbar
137. Chae Ross
138. Christopher Keogan
139. Robin Hull
140. Sydney Wilson
141. Daniel Womersley
142. Florian Nuessle
143. Antoni Kowalski
144. Ivan Kakovskii
Fans anywhere in the world will be able to watch the qualifying rounds on Eurosport, Eurosport Player, online broadcasters in China or (in all other territories) FREE on Matchroom Live.
No real surprise there. Other than the Asian players that we already knew would be missing and Steve Misfud who didn’t show up for the whole season, every player has entered the championship. We have 34 amateurs in the draw. I have put them in blue.
26 countries are represented. For the first time we will have a player from Morocco, Amine Amiri, from France, Brian Ochoiski and from Ukraine, Iulian Boiko.
The youngest player is just 14, the oldest player is 58.
Unfortunately there is just one female player in the draw, Reanne Evans.
The draw will be published later this week.
Remember that the format is different this year:
Round one: The players seeded 81-144 play each other with the 32 winners going into Round Two. The matches are best of 11.
Round Two: those 32 winners will face players seeded 49-80. The matches are best of 11.
Round Three: those 32 winners will face players seeded 17-48. The matches are best of 11.
Round Four: those 32 winners play each other, with the 16 winners going through to the Crucible to face the top 16 seeds. The matches are best of 19.
A very theoretical “Judgement Day” (Round 4) could look like this
Joe Perry v Tian Pengfei
Ali Carter v Alan McManus
Gary Wilson v Daniel Wells
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh v Lu Ning
Graeme Dott v Chris Wakelin
Scott Donaldson v Anthony Hamilton
Jimmy Robertson v Robert Milkins
Michael Holt v Mark King
Tom Ford Stuart Carrington
Matthew Selt v Kurt Maflin
Lyu Haotian v Noppon Saengkham
Matthew Stevens v Ricky Walden
Mark Davis v Anthony McGill
Martin O’Donnell v Ben Woollaston
Liang Wenbo v Luca Brecel
Hossein Vafaei v Ryan Day
I am a little surprised to see Amine Amiri, Hamza Akbar and Wu Yize in the draw. I assume Hamza and Wu are here primarily for Q School anyway and have VISAs and travel/accommodation arrangements in place.
I am also puzzled why they appear to have seeded the amateurs. How did they come up with this? If they use that for the draw, then the draw is implicitly decided according to the normal algorithm (e.g. Boiko will play Borg, with the winner playing Highfield, etc.). If they are going to scramble the amateurs, then there was no point in ‘seeding’ them.
Anyway, some of the ‘Judgement Day’ matches look very tough to call, particularly Liang-Brecel. Both players looked good recently. Outside of those 32, there are only a handful of other players that look dangerous. But of course everyone is vulnerable under the current situation.
Why was there no point in seeding them? It is a seeding order list.
Why was there no point in seeding them? It is a ‘seeding order list’!