On Sunday, a superb Mark Williams won the penultimate event of the 2023/24 snooker season that will count towards the rankings.
The Welshman dominated the second session of his blockbuster showdown with old rival Ronnie O’Sullivan in Manchester.
The latter had established a 5-3 cushion after the first session, scoring three century breaks in a rapid afternoon burst of play.
But the respite helped Williams, who was able to regroup before duly contributing a pair of his own tons during a one-sided evening session.
The 49 year-old, the reigning British Open champion, won the remaining seven frames against his esteemed opponent to seal a 26th career ranking success.
Let’s see how it impacts the world snooker rankings ahead of the campaign’s finale at the Crucible Theatre.
Top 16
Like so often this season, there had been a chance that O’Sullivan might have relinquished his stranglehold at the summit of the official snooker rankings list.
But Judd Trump’s exit in the quarter-finals ensured that the Rocket would maintain the status he has held since April in 2022.
With the ยฃ500,000 he accrued at the 2022 World Championship soon to be deducted from his rolling two-year tally, O’Sullivan is provisionally set to end the 2023/24 season as the world number five, however.
Mark Allen is currently in line to conclude this term as the world number one, but everything on that front will depend on how results pan out at the lucrative World Championship in Sheffield.
The Pistol stays in third in the current official standings – behind Trump in second and in front of reigning world champion Luca Brecel in fourth.
Mark Selby stays in fifth ahead of Mark Williams, who collected a handsome cheque worth ยฃ150,000 for landing the Tour Championship crown.
Ding Junhui, Shaun Murphy, Ali Carter, and Gary Wilson complete the top ten – with Wilson rising to a career-high ranking following his run to the semi-finals at the Manchester Central.
A little further down lies Zhang Anda, Kyren Wilson, and John Higgins, who has dropped three places to 13th and is provisionally outside the world’s top 16 in the end-of-season standings.
Tom Ford, Barry Hawkins, and Robert Milkins complete the top 16.
With the points from his 2022 Tour Championship triumph now deducted from his total, Neil Robertson officially drops out of the top 16 for the first time since 2017.
| Official 2-Year World Rankings | Apr 8, 2024 | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ronnie O’Sullivan | ยฃ1,109,000 |
| 2 | Judd Trump | ยฃ1,061,000 |
| 3 | Mark Allen | ยฃ965,000 |
| 4 | Luca Brecel | ยฃ690,500 |
| 5 | Mark Selby | ยฃ678,500 |
| 6 | Mark Williams | ยฃ557,500 |
| 7 | Ding Junhui | ยฃ486,500 |
| 8 | Shaun Murphy | ยฃ468,000 |
| 9 | Ali Carter | ยฃ443,000 |
| 10 | Gary Wilson | ยฃ421,500 |
| 11 | Zhang Anda | ยฃ416,000 |
| 12 | Kyren Wilson | ยฃ381,500 |
| 13 | John Higgins | ยฃ353,500 |
| 14 | Tom Ford | ยฃ325,500 |
| 15 | Barry Hawkins | ยฃ312,500 |
| 16 | Robert Milkins | ยฃ283,500 |
| — | — | — |
| 17 | Jack Lisowski | ยฃ277,000 |
| 18 | Ryan Day | ยฃ255,500 |
| 19 | Hossein Vafaei | ยฃ244,500 |
| 20 | Chris Wakelin | ยฃ235,500 |
World Snooker Championship seeding
With nobody ranked outside the top 16 featuring in the Tour Championship this year, the automatic qualifiers for the World Championship were already known.
But the specific seeding positions for the Crucible Theatre had yet to be determined.
Those are now set in stone, with Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump representing the respective second and third seeds behind reigning world champion Luca Brecel.
That puts O’Sullivan and Trump on the same side of the draw, meaning this season’s most prolific winners could face each other in the semi-finals.
Mark Williams, Ding Junhui, and Gary Wilson are among the others who slot into the bottom half of the World Snooker Championship draw.
Brecel, meanwhile, will look to become the first player in Crucible history to successfully defend his first world title.
The Belgian has the likes of Mark Allen, Mark Selby, John Higgins, and Shaun Murphy for company in the top half.
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 main stages of the World Snooker Championship commence on Saturday, April 20th with various options to watch live coverage including on the BBC and Eurosport.
This, of course, will be the final ranking event of the 2023/24 campaign.
Before that, a fiercely contested qualifying competition will determine the final 16 places at the Crucible Theatre.
That gets under way on Monday, April 8th and runs until Wednesday, April 17th at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.
The World Snooker Championship qualifiers will be the last opportunity for a lot of players to earn points in the rankings race for tour survival.
To keep up to date with that drama, head over to the WPBSA website which always provides its annual tour survival blog.
How to watch the World Championship qualifiers:
Europe
discovery+
China
Huya.com
All other territories
matchroom.live
Featured photo credit: WST
ฤดust to congratulate Mark williams on is Win over Ronnie o’sullivan.
Congratulations Mark on beating R O’S 10-5 – you were brilliant!
Excellent win for Mark Williams, a great performance in this whole tournament and a very worthy winner. That said, in this final Ronnie O’Sullivan looked badly out of sorts except for during a 4 frame mini session blitz. Almost like his prior comments about feeling like he was not hitting the ball cleanly had some merit, or became self fulfilling.
Williams produced top class matchplay all week. He rarely gave easy chances to Trump, Allen or O’Sullivan. Was very clinical in the balls and gave a masterclass in single ball potting.
O’Sullivan is housed in a nice quarter for Sheffield given his head-to-head record against the others.
The quarter with Selby, Wilson, Allen and Higgins looks very strong. Four rock hard matchplayers.
With Williams now in bottom half it looks like a miles stronger half than top half , maybe brecel again for final from that half
Please explain how you can watch the broadcast live in the United States
I believe DAZN has coverage of some tournaments, but you would have to check that. If there is no broadcaster in your region for an event, Matchroom.Live is an option. But they will geoblock you if there is a contract with a broadcaster in your country.