The latest snooker rankings update follows the conclusion of the 2025 Tour Championship, the season’s 17th and penultimate ranking tournament.
John Higgins stormed back to prevail from a topsy-turvy final with Mark Selby, claiming a 10-8 victory at the Manchester Central on Sunday.
While the scoreline suggested a close match throughout, there were actually three separate periods of dominance from either player in the game.
Higgins first seemed to assert a measure of control when he established a 5-1 lead during the opening session while compiling a brace of tons.
But Selby added two century breaks to his earlier 135 to end the afternoon’s play just two behind, and he duly won the first five frames of the evening session as well.
There appeared to be only one outcome, but Higgins dug deep in trademark fashion to mount a storming comeback.
The Scot, who memorably surrendered a 9-4 advantage to Neil Robertson in the 2022 Tour Championship final, contributed breaks of 110 and 67 to restore parity.
Higgins subsequently edged his nose in front again with a run of 80, and he followed that up with a terrific title-clinching clearance of 132 at the end.
With the success, the 49 year-old takes his career tally of ranking crowns to 33, and it marks his second victory in as many months having recently ended a four-year drought at the World Open.
Higgins called his triumph his “best ever win”, and with the form he is showing at the tail end of this term, he will represent one of the big favourites in Sheffield.
No player has managed to do the Tour Championship and World Championship double, but it will take a fine performance to stop the four-time world champion, whose full confidence has been restored.
Let’s take a look at how the action at the 2025 Tour Championship impacted the snooker rankings.
Top 16
As there were only 12 competitors in the field, not a great deal has changed on the official two-year list since our last update.
Through earning the £150,000 top prize in Manchester, however, Higgins moves back up to number three in the world.
He remains a long way off Judd Trump in first and Kyren Wilson in second, but it’s a remarkable turnaround for a player who momentarily dropped outside the top 16 earlier this season.
Selby drops to fourth ahead of Ronnie O’Sullivan and Mark Williams, with Luca Brecel and Mark Allen completing the top eight.
For Brecel, his tenure within the elite bracket is likely soon going to end, unless the Belgian Bullet can rediscover his top form and defend the £500,000 that will be deducted from his rolling tally after the upcoming World Championship.
Neil Robertson moves above Ding Junhui into ninth, with Barry Hawkins, Zhang Anda, Si Jiahui, and Xiao Guodong each rising one place from 11th to 14th respectively.
Shaun Murphy drops four rungs on the ladder to 15th after his prize money for winning the 2023 Tour Championship was taken away from his total.
Jak Jones completes the top 16, with the Welshman securing the last automatic spot in the 2025 World Snooker Championship first-round draw.
Who were the other movers?
The only player not already ranked inside the top 16 who qualified to participate in the 2025 Tour Championship was Wu Yize.
Wu had an outside chance of bagging an automatic ticket to the Crucible Theatre, but he lost his opening match to remain as the world number 22.
The Chinese cueist will be one of 128 players who will next head to English Institute of Sport in Sheffield for the World Championship qualifiers.
Another is Ali Carter, who had been in the top 16 in the most recent snooker rankings update.
The Captain drops out at the worst possible time through his failure to defend points earned at the Tour Champs two years ago.
| Official 2-Year World Rankings | April 7th, 2025 | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Judd Trump | £1,884,200 |
| 2 | Kyren Wilson | £1,334,300 |
| 3 | John Higgins | £781,250 |
| 4 | Mark Selby | £758,000 |
| 5 | Ronnie O’Sullivan | £690,000 |
| 6 | Mark Williams | £688,600 |
| 7 | Luca Brecel | £623,900 |
| 8 | Mark Allen | £592,900 |
| 9 | Neil Robertson | £577,050 |
| 10 | Ding Junhui | £576,000 |
| 11 | Barry Hawkins | £555,050 |
| 12 | Zhang Anda | £506,060 |
| 13 | Si Jiahui | £470,200 |
| 14 | Xiao Guodong | £439,000 |
| 15 | Shaun Murphy | £405,900 |
| 16 | Jak Jones | £374,800 |
| — | — | — |
| 17 | Gary Wilson | £368,900 |
| 18 | Ali Carter | £358,300 |
| 19 | Stuart Bingham | £353,900 |
| 20 | Chris Wakelin | £353,400 |
| 21 | Tom Ford | £350,950 |
| 22 | Wu Yize | £342,600 |
| 23 | David Gilbert | £302,600 |
| 24 | Hossein Vafaei | £284,300 |
| 25 | Jack Lisowski | £274,600 |
When is the next snooker event?
Only one ranking event on the World Snooker Tour remains for this campaign, and it’s the big one in Sheffield.
The 2025 World Snooker Championship qualifiers will first take place from April 7th to 16th at the English Institute of Sport.
Following that will be the main event itself, which runs from April 19th to May 5th at the Crucible Theatre.
Featured photo credit: WST
I make it a 57th career title for the legendary Scot. It certainly has to rank as one of his greatest performances and victories. From 5-1 down, Selby was in vintage form.Very few can beat him in that sort of groove.
The last two Player’s Series finals have been great contest. Yesterday’s match was ample compensation for a disproportionate amount of lopsided scorelines.
Eight centuries in the final equalled the record for a best of 19 match. Five centuries in the first session of eight frames. I’m not aware of an instance of six tons in a session of eight frames.
Higgins and Selby’s haul of 11 centuries in the event matched Neil Robertson’s record for most centuries in the Tour Championship.
Higgins joins Selby and Kyren Wilson as the only players to win two titles in 2025. In the 2024/25 season, Wilson has four wins, Trump and Selby have three and Robertson and Higgins have two each.
I don’t know what the record for that is, but the first thing that popped into my head was the K. Wilson vs A. Hamilton match that had 6 centuries. It was a best of 9, but there were 8 frames (5-3).
Good shout. I hadn’t thought of a best of nine not going the distance. Barry Hawkins had five on his own last Monday afternoon!
The elephant in the room remains the participation of O’Sullivan.
I wish he had already declared his position as the qualifiers have already started. If he is to pull out this means that his first round opponent at the Crucible is going to get a bye which for me is not right for the supreme and pinnacle tournament of the season.