There has been one significant change in the standings.
Mark Selby has been confirmed as the new world number one in the rankings after the conclusion of the British Open at the Morningside Arena.
The Jester may have exited in the second round in what was his local ranking event in Leicester, but the deduction of Judd Trump’s prize money from the International Championship two years ago saw the latter’s tally dip underneath that of Selby.
Trump could have held onto top spot with a run to the quarter-finals but lost out to Elliot Slessor in the third round, and it’s fair to say that the 31 year-old hasn’t taken the exchange in positions that well.
Perhaps understandably so, considering the fact that Trump has triumphed in ten ranking events to Selby’s five over the last 24-month period, albeit Selby did land the big one at the Crucible in May that earned him a whopping £500,000.
As the official rankings stand after the British Open, Selby leads Trump by just £7,000, and an oddity of the disrupted calendar at present means that Trump will actually regain his coveted number one position no matter what the outcome is in the next ranking tournament in Northern Ireland.
Worth pointing out among the chat over Judd Trump losing the world number one ranking next week that he’s already guaranteed to regain it after the Northern Ireland Open because Mark Selby has £102k coming off at that cut-off, while Trump has just £17k to defend there.
— Matt (@ProSnookerBlog) August 21, 2021
For Selby, though, it’s the four-time world champion’s seventh spell at the summit of the sport, a fine achievement that means a lot to the 38 year-old.
Mark Williams, meanwhile, moves up three places and back into the top eight in the world rankings after his fine British Open success on Sunday.
It was the Welshman’s 24th career ranking title, coming a neat 24 years after he previously won the old British Open back in 1997.
Ding Junhui, who hasn’t participated during the 2021/22 campaign so far, slips to tenth, and with the points from his 2019 UK Championship victory set to come off later this year, a dramatic plummet outside the world’s 16 appears to be almost inevitable.
| 1 | Mark Selby | £1,213,000 |
| 2 | Judd Trump | £1,206,000 |
| 3 | Ronnie O’Sullivan | £864,000 |
| 4 | Neil Robertson | £772,000 |
| 5 | Kyren Wilson | £609,500 |
| 6 | Shaun Murphy | £574,500 |
| 7 | John Higgins | £411,500 |
| 8 | Mark Williams | £400,500 |
| 9 | Stephen Maguire | £345,500 |
| 10 | Ding Junhui | £335,250 |
| 11 | Mark Allen | £296,000 |
| 12 | Barry Hawkins | £292,000 |
| 13 | Stuart Bingham | £281,000 |
| 14 | Jack Lisowski | £272,500 |
| 15 | Yan Bingtao | £261,500 |
| 16 | Anthony McGill | £248,500 |
Lower down the pecking order, Gary Wilson rises back into the top 32 with the £45,000 he earned as the British Open finalist enough to see him place in 28th spot.
Zhou Yuelong and David Gilbert’s runs to the quarter-finals ensure that the world numbers 17 and 18 close the gap to the top 16 in what could become a potentially interesting Race to the Masters towards the end of 2021.
Following their somewhat unexpected appearances in the semi-finals, Elliot Slessor and Jimmy Robertson were the other big movers with the English pair rising to 43rd and 48th respectively.
Click here to view the full official world rankings list.
