It is pretty hard to answer this question if you dont know who applied and who did not. I am sure if Alex applied he would have been a shoe in, anything less then a immediate invite would make a mockery of the whole tour if he did not get in, therefore I am almost sure he did not apply. Phoebe posts here, she can probably let us know for sure.
Other names on the list ot there, Steve Davis? Another who should be there simply for the star power but who almost for sure did not apply due to his WPA connections and their stance on the IPT.
Drago should be on there, again I am not sure if he applied but if he did there are a ton of players on there he would destroy.
There are alot of players on that list that are indeed a joke, many of them female. There are 2 women in the world I figure have a legit chance to win on this tour, Corr and Fisher. The rest got gifted spots over men who could spot them the 6.
Chao and Wu and all the other taiwan players not being in this is a crime. I am sure they did not apply, hopefully the IPT does really well and drags them over to the USA next year with the promise of a chance for $1,000,000 winnings in a year.
I dont see this as a Sigel gift. He still has to deal with
Archer
Strickalnd
Immonen
Bustamente
Reyes
Chamat
Daulton
Deuel
Feijen
Frank
Hatch
Hohmann
Jones
Lely
Manalo
McCready
Morris
O'Sullivan
Owen
Parica
Putnam
Robles
Sambajon
Souquet
Stalev
Van De Berg
Williams (I am shocked Charlie applied)
Anyone who did not get in and wants to play the "However.....It's his money...If he wants to give it all to Mike Segal...so be it." card needs to wake up. There are a ton of top players in this tour that have been at the top of the world of pool for the past few years. I dont think missing a Jimmy Mendoza is justifiable to say KT is gifting the tour to Sigel when he instead gets to battle with Manalo and Hohmann and any of the other names in that list.
There are alot of players missing that should be on there. Some did not apply, some maybe slipped through the cracks. There are afew names on that list that are kind of a joke, but this tour drops the bottom 50 off every year and replaces them with the qualifiers from the next year, so if you all think Alvarez sucks so bad then rest assured this will be his first and last year as a IPT touring member and if you are oh so good maybe you will take his place with another 49 qualifiers. This first year a few people were likely to slip through the cracks. And with all the negativity and sceptisism towards the tour from the minute it was announced on this and other message boards it is no wonder afew people did not apply and followed the negative sentiments of this board. Way to go everyone. Now suck it up and next year when the qualifiers go on and the bottom 50 players get dropped off we will get alot more realistic 150 top player field for the 2007 season.
There really isn't much left to say. Quite a number of deserving players didn't get in while quite a number of questionable players did get in. Hopefully some of those questionable players do well enough to keep playing in 2007 and hopefully some of the players who didn't make the initial list, but are valid competitors against that list, will qualify to play in the next season. I hope this tour really works out. It's great that there will finally be some real money in pool. I know I'll be hitting balls looking for opportunities where I can try to qualify to get in. I'm sure a lot of other people will be doing the same thing.
