stanley_ wrote:Recent tournaments saved a few of the players (Bingyu, Si and Zifan making the one-year list) and Tian Pengfei and Lyu Haotian making the top 64. Could have been much worse than it ended up. I think the biggest disappointments are Yuan Sijun and Luo Honghao.
Back in June of last year, it was not even clear that the Chinese players would be able to come back at all during 2020. Even those that did arrive for the World Championship, they played horribly and lost immediately (apart from Luo's miraculous 6-5 escape against Lines and Ding's 10-9 against King at the Crucible). The missed ranking points put several players under pressure.
Then, spending months in the UK playing only at Milton Keynes was also tough, and several have expressed the sadness at being separated from their families. The performances gradually got more ragged. Actually, it was a good World Championship for the Chinese players, but several ran out of steam towards the end of the qualifiers.
Definitely Yuan, Luo and Si are a big loss to the tour if they don't qualify. Lei and Bai are young enough to be able to withstand a year off the tour if it comes to that. I know Yuan wasn't able to play for several months, and was completely uncompetitive this season. Luo's developed a technical flaw needing attention (maybe a coach), which isn't easy to arrange whilst lockdowns are still in place.