Road to Barcelona: Ruiz climbs two places, Arroyo returns to hope

Alex Ruiz’s victory in the FIP Platinum in Mexico City gave 250 points to the Spanish player, who with the first title of his season gained two positions in the FIP Race, moving up from number 18 to number 16 and overtaking the Brazilian Lucas Bergamini, beaten in the final paired with Javi Garrido by ‘Captain America’ and Alex Arroyo.

On the eve of the start of the GNP Mexico Major and one week away from the Milano P1, and with 3,000 points in the FIP ranking still to be awarded (2,000 in Acapulco, 1,000 in Italy), anything can happen. If Ruiz is aiming to stay in the top 16, Pablo Cardona (currently number 15) has only 52 points to defend on Bergamini’s 17th place, and paired with Paquito Navarro (number 9 on the Race) needs to get results to avoid the risk of being left out.

But the victory in the FIP Platinum has also relaunched the ambitions of Alex Arroyo, currently number 19 in the FIP Race but with only 60 points to make up on 16th position; on the other hand, Sanyo Gutierrez (from 16th to 18th), semi-finalist in Mexico but in the running to be in Barcelona, has dropped two. Between the 2,722 points of Cardona and the 3,282 of Alonso – currently number 14 – there is a margin of 560 points, but the sprint for the last two tickets to Barcelona is more open than ever.