Following his maiden ranking event victory at the English Open on Sunday, Liang Wenbo has also now earned an invitation to the lucrative Champion of Champions in November.
While the Chinese 29 year-old collected £70,000 for his triumph in Manchester, a further £100,000 will be up for grabs at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry next month.
This will mark the first time that Liang has qualified for the Champion of Champions, which is now in its fourth year on the snooker calendar.
While 14 out of the 16 places in the draw have now been secured, two more spots remain available with the International Championship and the new China Championship still to come.
Should the winners of those tournaments be repeat champions from any of the previous counting events, the remaining places will be filled by the one-year rankings list.
Meanwhile, a great weekend for Liang was made that little bit better again as he jumped – quite literally, following his joyful celebration upon beating Judd Trump in yesterday’s final – back inside the top 16 in the world rankings.
While this achievement doesn’t represent as much importance as it used to in the past, it still garners a certain degree of significance – particularly at this time of the year with only a couple of months left before the places for this season’s Masters are determined.
Kyren Wilson is the unfortunate competitor to drop out of the elite bracket while the likes of Anthony McGill, Stephen Maguire and Martin Gould are also currently chasing one of the hot tickets to the Alexandra Palace in January.
However, with three ranking events and only about £65,000 separating Liang in 12th and Gould in 20th, there’s still plenty of time left for the chasing players to earn a coveted spot in London.
