With three events to go and the prize purses for the remaining World Ranking events confirmed, the battle for a spot and seed in the 2027 World Championship Eliminators is heating up. Five players—John Lumley, Nick Howell, Rob Fahey, Ben Taylor-Matthews, and Steve Virgona—have a realistic chance to qualify for four available places to challenge Camden Riviere for the World Championship title.
The World Race operates on a two-year cycle; it started at the Australian Open in January 2025 in Hobart, and will conclude at the British Open at Queen’s in November 2026. Points are awarded based on finishing positions in each of the fourteen tournaments that award ranking points. The incumbent World Champion—Riviere—will await a challenger to emerge from the World Championship Eliminators. The top four remaining players in the World Race will enter the World Championship Eliminators, with the first player up against the fourth, and the second against the third.
Three events remain for the 2025–26 World Race: the French Open in Paris (26 Sept–4 Oct), the IRTPA Players’ Championship in Aiken (17–25 Oct) and the British Open at Queen’s (15–24 Nov). With the British Open entry form now confirming the final point allocation per tournament, each player’s pathway to earning qualification to the World Championship Eliminators now begins to clear up.
The French Open offers a total of 24,613 points, the IRTPA Players’ Championship offers 35,000 points and the British Open has 60,237 points, enough to mix up the standings as the Race concludes. Note that the Players’ Championship and British Open have the option to increase their purse up to two days before the close of entries, which may affect the calculations in this article.
Camden Riviere — 71,577 points
Riviere has held the World Championship title continuously since 2022. He first won the World Championship Challenge in 2016 on his third attempt. His most recent defence was in 2025, defeating John Lumley by 7 sets to 1. As Champion, his World Race points total has no impact on his fate, as he will have the right to play in 2027 regardless. Even so, he still accumulates points at every event he plays. Given his outstanding record in Open play over the past decade, his role for the remaining events will be as a spoiler for anyone who draws him across the early rounds.
John Lumley — 72,033 points
Although Lumley leads Riviere on Race points, the 2025 World Championship Challenger still needs to battle through the Eliminators if he wants another shot. Lumley has reached at least the semi-final of every event he has played in across the 2025-26 World Race, with almost half of his points coming from his two Open wins in 2025 at the US Open (19,242 points) and the British Open (16,105 points). Going into the French Open, he holds a 19,987-point lead over the second-placed Nick Howell among Eliminator contenders. Given Rob Fahey will be absent from the French Open’s singles, it is mathematically impossible for either Fahey or Ben Taylor-Matthews to overtake Lumley.
The only marginal uncertainty for Lumley is whether he will finish in first or second place among the Eliminator contenders, which is not yet mathematically locked in. An overall win in Paris locks Lumley into first place. Just by showing up to the remaining three events, Lumley secures enough points such that the only way Howell can overtake him is to win the British Open and the IRTPA Players’ Championship, with Lumley losing in the first round of each.
Nick Howell — 52,046 points
Howell currently sits in second place among the Eliminator contenders, 9,108 points above third-placed Rob Fahey. His position arises from having chipped away at points all series long, notably getting 10,737 points from the 2025 British Open final and 6,686 points from winning the 2026 Champions Trophy. He has only missed one event, the 2025 Australian Open in Hobart, and has made at least the quarter-finals at every other event.
However, Howell is not travelling to Paris in September, depriving him of a chance to defend his position. As a result, his position in the Eliminators is not yet mathematically guaranteed, especially as the gap to Fahey and, post-French Open, Taylor-Matthews can be closed at the British Open. For Howell to miss out entirely is theoretically possible, though very unlikely, as it would require all of Taylor-Matthews, Fahey and Steve Virgona to score very highly in the remaining events while Howell misses out. To lock in at least the number 4 slot, he needs to find a minimum of about 6,444 points; for number 3, he needs about 12,662 points; and for number 2, he needs about 17,946.
However, that calculation assumes that his nearest challengers are able to reach the final or win every remaining tournament. If, instead, all remaining tournaments end in a Riviere vs Lumley final, Howell’s qualification route becomes much simpler. In that scenario, by merely showing up to the British Open, or alternatively, by winning at least one match at the Players’ Championship, his number 2 place will be confirmed.
Rob Fahey — 42,938 points
The thirteen-time World Champion has had his best cycle since he lost his title at Prested in 2022 and retired from singles play shortly thereafter. He still held enough points to challenge in 2023 as a result, but elected not to. Although Fahey returned to singles play again at the 2024 US Open, the lack of points in 2023 saw him miss the Eliminators in 2025. Now, he is back in the running for the Eliminators for just the third time in his career, having played in 1994 and 2018. He has only played seven events out of eleven — and will also miss the French Open — but a haul of 14,477 points for winning the Schochet Cup in 2025 has provided over a third of his total. For the events he has played, he has reached at least the semi-final at all of them except the 2026 Schochet Cup.
Fahey is currently 4,487 points ahead of Taylor-Matthews and 9,070 points ahead of Virgona; the differences in points will both decrease after the French Open. Should Fahey abstain from all remaining events, Taylor-Matthews will overtake him just by reaching the quarter-finals at every event, while Virgona would likely need to reach at least the semi-finals of the British Open to knock Fahey out of contention entirely.
Fahey’s ultimate place in the Eliminators depends on whether he decides to play the remaining events. In the scenario where each of the remaining tournaments ends in a Riviere vs Lumley final, attendance at both the Players’ Championship and the British Open plus a first-round win at the British Open is enough to ensure an Eliminator berth. Alternatively, if he just plays the British, a semi-final result would be enough to beat three semi-finals from Virgona in all three events. Crucially though, as Fahey sits outside the top 4 on World Rankings there is a 50-50 chance of drawing either Riviere or Lumley in the quarter-finals, opening a pathway for Virgona.
A bigger risk for Fahey is losing his number 3 seed in the Eliminators to Taylor-Matthews. If Fahey plays just the British Open and only reaches the quarter-finals, then Taylor-Matthews needs to make at least a semi-final at either Queen’s or Aiken. If Fahey does the same and reaches a semi-final, then Taylor-Matthews needs to reach the semi-final at both Queen’s and Aiken — not impossible given Taylor-Matthews’ World Ranking gives him a top-4 seed. Fahey’s position is more firm if he plays in Aiken as well, as two quarter-finals in the remaining events would leave Taylor-Matthews needing sufficiently stronger results across the remaining three, while a quarter-final at Aiken and a semi-final at Queen’s mathematically locks Taylor-Matthews out if Riviere and Lumley make every remaining final.
Ben Taylor-Matthews — 38,451 points
Taylor-Matthews currently holds the fourth Eliminator slot, seeking qualification to the World Championship Eliminators for the fourth time. His best result in the Race to date was picking up 9,651 points for reaching the final of the 2025 Schochet Cup. However, quarter-final losses to Bryn Sayers at both the 2025 British Open and 2026 US Open prevented him from cashing in at two of the highest-value tournaments of the cycle. As a result, Taylor-Matthews is 4,487 points behind Fahey, but only 4,583 points ahead of Virgona.
The key challenge for Taylor-Matthews is staying ahead of Virgona. Key to that quest will be not losing in the first round of the French Open to Zak Eadle, as a quarter-final will at least guarantee him the key world number 4 slot for the Players’ Championship, assuming Virgona doesn’t beat Riviere in their semi-final. If that does occur, it will be a head-to-head sprint for the finish. Best case scenario for Taylor-Matthews would be that Virgona draws either Riviere or Lumley in the quarter-finals at either the British Open or Players’ Championship. The tantalising prospect is the scenario where Taylor-Matthews and Virgona draw each other in the remaining tournaments, but the likelihood for that will depend on attendance from the other top seeds as well as each player’s ability to win through early-round matches.
Steve Virgona — 33,868 points
Virgona had a poor start to the 2025-26 World Race, suffering from the first-round exit of the Schochet Cup to Josh Dodgson in 2025, while missing the Australian Open and Champions Trophy. Winning the French Open in 2025 boosted his point total by 6,279 points, but the wrist injury he suffered in the final few games saw him miss the subsequent British Open as well. His 2026 season has gone better, taking 7,398 points home as a finalist of the Australian Open, as well as decent hauls at the Schochet Cup and Champions Trophy. He goes into the final three tournaments outside of the Eliminator places, needing to claw 4,583 points back from Taylor-Matthews.
With the World Ranking points he won at the 2025 French Open about to decay, Virgona is likely to go into the final two events as the World Number 5 unless he substantially outperforms Taylor-Matthews in Paris; a Virgona semi-final combined with a Taylor-Matthews first-round loss would be enough to keep Virgona ahead. If both players only reach quarter-finals or semi-finals in the remaining events, Virgona must not earn fewer points than Taylor-Matthews at any of them, and he would need to outperform Taylor-Matthews at both the Players’ Championship and the British Open.
Robert Shenkman (23,204 points) & Bryn Sayers (20,726 points)
Robert Shenkman and Bryn Sayers sit a distant sixth and seventh in the Eliminator standings, 10,664 points and 13,142 points behind Virgona, respectively. For Shenkman, apart from missing both Australian Opens, he has reached the quarter-finals of every event, but only gone on to one semi-final at the 2025 French Open. His 2026 trip to Paris doesn’t look much kinder, seeded to play Riviere in the quarter-finals. Still, he is not yet mathematically ruled out, since, for instance, an overall win at the British Open can still put him past Taylor-Matthews if the latter fails to progress.
For Sayers, his two wins over Taylor-Matthews in the 2025 British Open and 2026 US Open have given him the bulk of his points for the cycle. Again, he is not mathematically ruled out, but would need to win the British Open or Players’ Championship to get close. Hence, if Riviere and Lumley make every final for the remainder of the calendar, both are ruled out of contention.
For both, the 2027-28 World Race is a more realistic target. For Shenkman to do well then, he will need to break through into more semi-finals, especially at high-value tournaments like the US Open, British Open or Schochet Cup. An improved world ranking would help, especially at tournaments that have full attendance, but the size of the ranking point gap to those above him means he would need to start pushing into semi-finals soon.
Lewis Williams (17,407 points) & Nino Merola (9,208 points)
Both Lewis Williams and Nino Merola, at least before the French Open, still maintain at least a mathematical chance of reaching the Eliminators. For Williams, he must win at least one tournament and, unless he wins a second, reach the final in at least another, while relying on poor results from Taylor-Matthews, Shenkman, Sayers and Virgona. For Merola, he must win all three remaining tournaments, while having Taylor-Matthews lose in the first round of all three remaining tournaments as well as having a number of other results go the right way.
Realistically, both are fighting to get into the top 8 of the World Rankings ahead of the next World Race cycle — or top 9 should anyone in the top 8 retire — so as to start each tournament as a seed and hence bank as many quarter-final results as possible. Then, they would need to start pushing into semi-finals later in the next World Race to have a more realistic shot at playing in the Eliminators in 2029. Accounting for depreciation of rankings, Williams needs to find 4,165 points over the next three events to overtake Sayers, while Merola needs 10,694 — helped further if both play the Australian Open at the start of the next cycle.
For any players currently outside the top 11, pathways to the 2029 World Championships become more limited without the protection that being seeded gives to one’s points tally. Rising players like Vaughan Hamilton, Bertie Vallat or Will Flynn would need to start scoring some genuine upsets to break through from the top 20 into the top 10, even across two years of play.