Luke Littler has been left with work to do after he was knocked out of the semifinals by Brendan Dolan of PC28 in Leicester.
World No. 1 Littler was beaten 7-4 before Dolan was defeated by Englishman Luke Humphries 8-6 in the finals.
Littler hopes of qualifying for the Players Championship finals in November, but only the top 64 make Minehead.
The 19-year-old, who won the first six major of the year, missed the first 26 events on the circuit in order to manage his schedule.
He's now £16,750 behind 64th-placed Shane McGuirk and there are only six events remaining. The projected cutoff is expected to go beyond £30,000 after all 34 events.
"Luke has been by far the best player in the last 18 months and he deserves the world number one spot," said world No. 2 Humphries said.
"He's won everything and I am going to be the only one who's trying to stop him.
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"I want to go on and win a major this year. I don't want him to have a clean sweep -- as much as everyone would love to see it."
Littler is set to headline the World Series in September before potentially heading to Den Bosch.
He will then travel to two events in Leicester to complete the qualification stage.
