With so much prize money on offer, the UK Championship was an important event in terms of the snooker rankings.
Ronnie O’Sullivan collected the £250,000 champion’s cheque thanks to his 10-7 victory over Ding Junhui in Sunday’s final.
Victory for the Rocket took his record tally of UK crowns to eight and his overall ranking title total to an outstanding 40.
Top 16
While there have been threats to his world number one status since the beginning of this season, O’Sullivan is now guaranteed to finish 2023 at the top of the official snooker rankings list.
Judd Trump bolstered his position in second with a run to the semi-finals at the Barbican Centre.
The remainder of the top seven stays the same, with world champion Luca Brecel in third ahead of Mark Allen.
Mark Selby, Neil Robertson, and Shaun Murphy are still in fifth, sixth, and seventh respectively.
Robertson, however, has a lot of ranking points to defend in the second half of this season and could soon face a sharp plummet down the pecking order.
Mark Williams rises above Kyren Wilson into eighth place, with John Higgins rounding off the top ten.
A second successive UK Championship final appearance for Ding, meanwhile, has seen him rise back to number 12 in the world behind Ali Carter.
Zhang Anda, Robert Milkins, Barry Hawkins, and Jack Lisowski complete the top 16, who have all been invited to participate in the prestigious Masters invitational next month.
Hossein Vafaei’s run to the semi-finals of the UK Championship was not quite enough to see him rejoin the elite bracket in time for Ally Pally.
The Iranian finished just £6,000 shy of the world number 16 ranking, while Tom Ford dropped out after briefly becoming a top 16 member for the first time in his career.
| Official 2-Year World Rankings | Dec 5, 2023 | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ronnie O’Sullivan | £1,137,500 |
| 2 | Judd Trump | £916,000 |
| 3 | Luca Brecel | £811,500 |
| 4 | Mark Allen | £791,000 |
| 5 | Mark Selby | £634,000 |
| 6 | Neil Robertson | £483,500 |
| 7 | Shaun Murphy | £481,500 |
| 8 | Mark Williams | £447,500 |
| 9 | Kyren Wilson | £395,000 |
| 10 | John Higgins | £391,000 |
| 11 | Ali Carter | £384,000 |
| 12 | Ding Junhui | £375,000 |
| 13 | Zhang Anda | £329,000 |
| 14 | Robert Milkins | £315,500 |
| 15 | Barry Hawkins | £315,000 |
| 16 | Jack Lisowski | £307,000 |
| — | — | — |
| 17 | Hossein Vafaei | £301,000 |
| 18 | Tom Ford | £299,000 |
| 19 | Ryan Day | £265,500 |
| 20 | Gary Wilson | £224,500 |
Race to the World Grand Prix
There are only two more counting events before the 32 spots in the World Grand Prix lineup are confirmed.
The lucrative event in January will feature only the best players from the one-year rankings list – based on performances during the 2023/24 snooker season.
O’Sullivan, who turns 48 on Tuesday, moves up to second on the one-year standings behind Trump.
With so much money already earned from this campaign, the pair will also definitely feature in the 16-player Players Championship and the 12-player Tour Championship – events that both rely on the same list.
One player guaranteed to not feature at the World Grand Prix is Neil Robertson, who has opted to skip the upcoming Snooker Shoot Out and Scottish Open.
The Australian has been struggling for form for more than a year and will head home over Christmas for some much-needed recuperation with his family.
There are a number of other high-profile competitors who will need to produce over the next couple of weeks in order to qualify for the World Grand Prix in Leicester.
Luca Brecel, who hasn’t entered the Shoot Out, and Kyren Wilson are other members of the top 16 who have been underperforming this term and provisionally stand below the top 32 cut-off point.
Reigning World Grand Prix champion Mark Allen, meanwhile, is just on the cusp at 32nd and in the final qualifying position.
| 1-Year Snooker Rankings | Dec 5th, 2023 | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Judd Trump | £403,000 |
| 2 | Ronnie O’Sullivan | £306,500 |
| 3 | Zhang Anda | £255,500 |
| 4 | Mark Williams | £172,500 |
| 5 | Barry Hawkins | £159,500 |
| 6 | Ding Junhui | £145,500 |
| 7 | Tom Ford | £131,500 |
| 8 | Mark Selby | £109,000 |
| 9 | Ali Carter | £104,500 |
| 10 | Hossein Vafaei | £89,000 |
| 11 | Lyu Haotian | £75,000 |
| 12 | John Higgins | £71,500 |
| 13 | Chris Wakelin | £70,500 |
| 14 | Zhou Yuelong | £65,500 |
| 15 | Stephen Maguire | £60,000 |
| 16 | Noppon Saengkham | £56,500 |
| 17 | Jack Lisowski | £56,500 |
| 18 | Xiao Guodong | £56,500 |
| 19 | Shaun Murphy | £56,000 |
| 20 | Matthew Selt | £53,500 |
| 21 | David Gilbert | £51,000 |
| 22 | Yuan Sijun | £50,500 |
| 23 | Wu Yize | £50,000 |
| 24 | Jordan Brown | £49,000 |
| 25 | Ricky Walden | £46,500 |
| 26 | Thepchaiya Un-Nooh | £44,000 |
| 27 | He Guoqiang | £39,500 |
| 28 | Robert Milkins | £39,500 |
| 29 | Jamie Jones | £39,000 |
| 30 | Pang Junxu | £39,000 |
| 31 | Robbie Williams | £38,500 |
| 32 | Mark Allen | £38,500 |
| — | — | — |
| 37 | Luca Brecel | £35,000 |
| 45 | Stuart Bingham | £31,500 |
| 47 | Kyren Wilson | £31,000 |
| 86 | Neil Robertson | £15,500 |
When is the next snooker event?
The Snooker Shoot Out is the next ranking event on the 2023/24 calendar.
The divisive tournament takes place from Wednesday, December 6 until Saturday, December 9 at the Swansea Arena in Wales.
Featured photo credit: WST
Andy Hicks has dropped to 65th after failing to defend the points he got for reaching the quarters two years ago.
O’Sullivan is one of only five players to win a professional tournament 8 times or more. Joe Davis leads the way with 15 World Championships. O’Sullivan is next with 10 Premier League titles. While Fred Davis and John Pulman are 8-time world champions. Steve Davis triumphed eight times at the Irish Masters. O’Sullivan is the first to reach eight titles in a ranked event.
Hi O Sullivan are you beast off you would Number one