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| Sunday, 09 August 2009 22:58 |
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English Open - Mens Class A is Closed According to FIR rules, the Mens Class A draws are to be done 2 weeks prior to a World Tour tournament. In this instance, a 16 draw was deemed the most appropriate to give strength and balance to this year's English Open. The 14 highest world ranked players were therefore granted automatic entry with 2 further wildcards as per FIR Rules. The rules state 7/8th of the draw has to be the highest world ranked with 1/8th given to wildcard players with low/no ranking. One anti-wildcard was also given to move one player from A to B. A 24 draw was looked at to give an extra wildcard but it means too many B/C players would have been forced to play A. Jennings & Hartley given chance to impress It has been agreed that the 2 golden tickets to the chocolate factory are to be given to....Alex Hartley and Carl Jennings. This is because of their outstanding performances on this year's domestic tour. Hartley & Jennings join a new look English elite including Manners, Jordan, Foulds, Lesser, Whitehouse, May & Granville. A number of players who were hoping to play in the Mens A event have been moved down to Mens B. The Mens B event will be jammed full of talent. Welsh Open Class B winner Bruce Wheatley and Sussex Open Mens A Champion Stuart Hobden are the hot favourites. Jennings and Hartley justify their wildcards with great wins over highly ranked England players this year. Hartley has indeed beaten the top 3 ranked England men on the domestic tour (Manners, Lesser & Jordan). Jennings is yet to face Manners but has again had great wins over other highly ranked players (Jordan, Foulds & Lesser). The full Mens A list is below. Other categories remain open for late entry but are subject to closure once the appropriate numbers are reached. 1 Michi Dickert AUT 6 |