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Snooker Rankings: update after the World Open

The latest snooker rankings update comes after the conclusion of the 2024 World Open in China.

Judd Trump emerged with the £170,000 top prize in Yushan after beating home favourite Ding Junhui 10-4 in Sunday’s final.

That takes the Englishman’s tally of ranking titles from this season alone to a fantastic five, and he’s up to 28 on the all-time list alongside legend Steve Davis.

Results in the World Open had a considerable impact on both the one-year and two-year snooker world rankings lists.

Top 16

Despite accumulating more than £700,000 in ranking points during the 2023/24 campaign so far, Trump still hasn’t been able to catch Ronnie O’Sullivan.

The 34 year-old stays in second behind the Rocket, although he has closed the gap on the rolling two-year standings to just £38,000.

It means that either player could enter the World Championship as the sport’s number one, depending on how results go at next week’s Tour Championship.

Even so, world number three Mark Allen remains in prime position to end this term at the summit.

The Northern Irishman has less points to defend from the Crucible in 2022 and has a pretty healthy buffer to the chasing pack in the provisional end-of-season standings.

Luca Brecel, Mark Selby, and Shaun Murphy remain unchanged in fourth, fifth, and sixth respectively.

Despite failing to land a first ranking title since 2019, Ding returns to the top eight in seventh ahead of Mark Williams.

Ali Carter drops to ninth in front of John Higgins, Zhang Anda, and Kyren Wilson.

The remaining top 16 spots on the official list are occupied by Gary Wilson, Neil Robertson, Tom Ford, and Barry Hawkins.

However, Robertson will definitely lose his membership among the elite at the next rankings update in early-April, meaning he’ll be forced into the World Championship qualifiers for the first time since 2006.

That’s good news for Robert Milkins, who will benefit from the Australian’s demise to gain an automatic berth at the Crucible Theatre this year.


Official 2-Year World RankingsMar 25, 2024
1Ronnie O’Sullivan£1,089,000
2Judd Trump£1,051,000
3Mark Allen£945,000
4Luca Brecel£730,500
5Mark Selby£658,500
6Shaun Murphy£468,000
7Ding Junhui£456,500
8Mark Williams£427,500
9Ali Carter£413,000
10John Higgins£393,500
11Zhang Anda£386,000
12Kyren Wilson£381,500
13Gary Wilson£381,500
14Neil Robertson£341,000
15Tom Ford£305,500
16Barry Hawkins£292,500
17Robert Milkins£283,500
18Jack Lisowski£277,000
19Ryan Day£255,500
20Hossein Vafaei£244,500
Click here for the full two-year list (WST)

Tour Survival

The World Open was the last opportunity for the lower-ranked players to gain points ahead of the season-ending World Championship.

As usual, the top 64 on the official two-year snooker rankings list will keep their main tour cards.

There are an additional four spots up for grabs for this season’s highest earners who haven’t secured positions inside the top 64.

As things stand, those places are taken up by David Lilley, Julien Leclercq, Dylan Emery, and Zak Surety.

With hefty prize money on offer in Sheffield, a lot will likely change next month before the ever-dramatic tour survival conversation concludes.

The likes of Aaron Hill, David Grace, and Mark Davis are ranked inside the world’s top 64 on the provisional end-of-season standings, but they’ll be watching over their shoulders.

Mark Joyce, Ashley Hugill, Andy Hicks, Ken Doherty, and Martin Gould are among those currently set to lose their tour cards.

The Tour Championship

The World Open was the last counting event before the places in next week’s Tour Championship draw were confirmed.

Only the top 12 players from the one-year standings are being invited to compete in the penultimate ranking event of the campaign.

With Neil Robertson and Jackson Page bowing out in the semi-finals, nobody managed to do enough in Yushan to upset the order.

All of the participants in Manchester in a week’s time are also current members of the top 16.

That means that the 16 seeded players at the Crucible for the World Championship are now set in stone, although the specific seeding positions will still likely change.

Update: the draw below has been updated following the conclusion of the Tour Championship with the seeding positions now confirmed.


2024 World Snooker Championship draw

Round of 32 (bo19)

Top Half
Luca Brecel (1) vs qualifier
Robert Milkins (16) vs qualifier
Ali Carter (9) vs qualifier
Shaun Murphy (8) vs qualifier

Mark Selby (5) vs qualifier
Kyren Wilson (12) vs qualifier
John Higgins (13) vs qualifier
Mark Allen (4) vs qualifier

Bottom Half
Judd Trump (3) vs qualifier
Tom Ford (14) vs qualifier
Zhang Anda (11) vs qualifier
Mark Williams (6) vs qualifier

Ding Junhui (7) vs qualifier
Gary Wilson (10) vs qualifier
Barry Hawkins (15) vs qualifier
Ronnie O’Sullivan (2) vs qualifier

The first-round draw will be made on Thursday, April 18th following the conclusion of the qualifiers.
To view the qualifying draw, click here.


What is the next snooker event?

The aforementioned Tour Championship runs from April 1st to 7th next week in Manchester and will be live on ITV.

Before that, though, the World Mixed Doubles will take place at the same venue this weekend.

Neil Robertson and Mink Nutcharut defend their title against Judd Trump and Baipat Siraporn, Luca Brecel and Reanne Evans, and Mark Selby and Rebecca Kenna.

Featured photo credit: WST

4 Comments

  1. Jim Morrison

    About Time, Snooker should be on TV more often

  2. Jim Morrison

    About time, Snooker, should be on TV more often 🤣

  3. Anthony Chamberlain

    Agree, should be less football and more snooker.

  4. In NZ it’s endless Rugby!.

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