The latest snooker rankings update follows the conclusion of the 2025 World Snooker Championship, the season’s 18th and final ranking tournament.
Zhao Xintong became China’s first world snooker champion on Monday after completing an 18-12 victory over Mark Williams at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
Draping the Chinese flag over his shoulders in an iconic moment of celebration, the 28 year-old is the first player with amateur status to lift the sport’s most prestigious trophy.
Zhao is also only the third qualifier to win in Sheffield having emerged from the very first round of the preliminary competition last month, winning an unprecedented nine matches in total.
It brings the curtain down on the 2024/25 snooker season, so let’s reflect on what it all means with the last snooker rankings recap of the campaign.
World number one
Judd Trump was one win away from taking his total past the £2 million mark on the official two-year snooker rankings list.
The 35 year-old will be disappointed that his term ended at the semi-final stage in the Crucible Theatre, but he remains way out in front as the game’s world number one.
Kyren Wilson is the only person who is likely to mount any sort of serious challenge for top spot during the upcoming 2025/26 campaign.
The Kettering cueist won’t have a lot of points to defend until the players return to Sheffield next year, but he remains almost £700,000 shy of Trump’s current tally as things stand.
Indeed, such is the extent of Trump’s lead that if he had his entire earnings from the 2023/24 term deducted from his total now, he’d still have more than enough to be ranked second in the world.
Top 16
With so much money on offer at the World Snooker Championship, it’s unsurprising to see plenty of movement elsewhere in the top 16.
Following his superb run to the final, 50 year-old Mark Williams rises to number three in the world – just ahead of his fellow Class of 1992 graduates John Higgins and Ronnie O’Sullivan.
Despite only reaching the second round, Ding Junhui rises four places to sixth based on the rolling two-year system.
Mark Selby drops three rungs on the ladder to seventh, just ahead of Neil Robertson, Barry Hawkins, and Mark Allen.
New world champion Zhao Xintong then rejoins the top 16 with a world ranking of 11.
There has been controversy surrounding the Chinese competitor’s immediate return to the elite bracket.
Some players have questioned the validity of his earnings from the season being used to determine his new ranking considering he wasn’t technically a professional player.
But the World Snooker Tour and the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association have both insisted over the course of the last week that this little-known clause is allowed under the rules.
Zhao pocketed £500,000 for his exploits in Sheffield in addition to the £10,000 he collected for qualifying for the UK Championship, which sees him instantly return to the big-time following the conclusion of his ban last September.
That’s bad news for Ali Carter, who is the unfortunate potter who will drop down to 17th in the pecking order.
Completing the top 16 behind Zhao, meanwhile, are Zhang Anda, Xiao Guodong, Shaun Murphy, Si Jiahui, and Chris Wakelin.
There are now five Chinese snooker players ranked inside the top 16 for the first time.
Other movers
Losing in the first round to eventual champion Zhao Xintong, Jak Jones quickly drops back out of the top 16 and is down to 20th.
It’s a lot more dramatic for Luca Brecel, though, with the Belgian Bullet plummetting 32 places to 39th.
With Brecel’s huge World Championship winner’s cheque from 2023 subtracted from his total, the 30 year-old will have to rebuild his career if he wants to return to the top tier.
Moving in the opposite direction is Lei Peifan, who ended his first year of a two-year card with a remarkable ranking of number 30 in the world.
| Official 2-Year World Rankings | May 6th, 2025 | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Judd Trump | £1,984,200 |
| 2 | Kyren Wilson | £1,304,300 |
| 3 | Mark Williams | £858,600 |
| 4 | John Higgins | £781,250 |
| 5 | Ronnie O’Sullivan | £740,000 |
| 6 | Ding Junhui | £606,000 |
| 7 | Mark Selby | £558,000 |
| 8 | Neil Robertson | £547,050 |
| 9 | Barry Hawkins | £540,050 |
| 10 | Mark Allen | £522,900 |
| 11 | Zhao Xintong | £510,000 |
| 12 | Zhang Anda | £491,550 |
| 13 | Xiao Guodong | £469,000 |
| 14 | Shaun Murphy | £435,900 |
| 15 | Si Jiahui | £420,200 |
| 16 | Chris Wakelin | £388,400 |
| — | — | — |
| 17 | Ali Carter | £378,300 |
| 18 | Gary Wilson | £353,900 |
| 19 | Tom Ford | £350,950 |
| 20 | Wu Yize | £342,600 |
| 21 | Jak Jones | £324,800 |
| 22 | Stuart Bingham | £323,900 |
| 23 | David Gilbert | £302,650 |
| 24 | Hossein Vafaei | £284,300 |
| 25 | Jack Lisowski | £244,600 |
| 26 | Pang Junxu | £242,400 |
| 27 | Stephen Maguire | £227,750 |
| 28 | Joe O’Connor | £223,750 |
| 29 | Elliot Slessor | £216,750 |
| 30 | Yuan Sijun | £208,600 |
| 31 | Lei Peifan | £206,000 |
| 32 | Zhou Yuelong | £201,050 |
| 33 | Noppon Saengkham | £196,850 |
| 34 | Matthew Selt | £193,250 |
| 35 | Jimmy Robertson | £193,100 |
| 36 | Jackson Page | £192,800 |
| 37 | Ryan Day | £187,300 |
| 38 | Lyu Haotian | £177,500 |
| 39 | Luca Brecel | £173,900 |
| 40 | Ricky Walden | £162,200 |
| 41 | Xu Si | £161,550 |
| 42 | Ben Woollaston | £159,900 |
| 43 | Martin O’Donnell | £147,000 |
| 44 | Daniel Wells | £144,500 |
| 45 | He Guoqiang | £138,150 |
| 46 | Thepchaiya Un-Nooh | £132,000 |
| 47 | Robbie Williams | £131,300 |
| 48 | Fan Zhengyi | £129,900 |
| 49 | Robert Milkins | £128,700 |
| 50 | Aaron Hill | £121,150 |
| 51 | Jamie Jones | £120,350 |
| 52 | Matthew Stevens | £118,050 |
| 53 | Jordan Brown | £115,650 |
| 54 | Mark Davis | £115,150 |
| 55 | Scott Donaldson | £114,150 |
| 56 | Liu Hongyu | £110,300 |
| 57 | David Lilley | £107,350 |
| 58 | Long Zehuang | £102,000 |
| 59 | Anthony McGill | £101,450 |
| 60 | Sanderson Lam | £100,000 |
| 61 | Graeme Dott | £97,800 |
| 62 | Cao Yupeng | £92,000 |
| 63 | Ishpreet Singh Chadha | £90,400 |
| 64 | Stan Moody | £86,750 |
Who got relegated?
With Zhao Xintong unexpectedly entering the two-year snooker rankings list, there could have been awkward ramifications for those around the top 64 cut-off point.
Fortunately, the player who was originally ranked in 64th was already guaranteed of his professional status for next season either way.
Zak Surety will slip down to 65th but is safe having only played one year of his current two-year professional card.
That is also the case for the likes of Michael Holt, Oliver Lines, Ben Mertens, Antoni Kowalski, and Ken Doherty.
Indeed, there are 31 players in total who finished outside the top 64 but enjoy the benefits of having one more year left on their cards.
Elsewhere, Ross Muir, Jiang Jun, Louis Heathcote, and Liam Graham all finished outside the top 64 but will be granted fresh two-year cards based on their elevated positions in the one-year snooker rankings.
For the likes of Jamie Clarke, Ashley Carty, Tian Pengfei, Alfie Burden, Ian Burns, and Andrew Higginson, finishing outside the top 64 means tour relegation.
Former German Masters champion Anthony Hamilton is also among this group, and it’s uncertain whether he will go to Q School or announce his retirement in the same manner as fellow veterans Joe Perry and Dominic Dale.
Jimmy White and Marco Fu both failed to secure tour survival on their own merit too.
But it has already been confirmed that the pair will be awarded with fresh invitational tour cards for their contributions to the sport.
Relegated Players
Jamie Clarke (66)
Ashley Carty (68)
Anthony Hamilton (69)
Xing Zihao (74)
Joe Perry (75)
Tian Pengfei (76)
Ma Hailong (77)
Stuart Carrington (78)
Alfie Burden (79)
Hammad Miah (80)
David Grace (81)
Ian Burns (82)
Rory Thor (83)
Sam Craigie (84)
Alexander Ursenbacher (87)
Andrew Higginson (89)
Dean Young (96)
Liam Pullen (98)
Andrew Pagett (99)
Manasawin Phetmalaikul (112)
Martin Gould (113)
Mostafa Dorgham (114)
Reanne Evans (118)
Ahmed Aly Elsayed (=125)
Baipat Siripaporn (=125)
When is the next snooker event?
Most of the relegated players above and a bucket load of aspiring amateurs will next head to Q School in a bid to seal their spots on the World Snooker Tour.
There will be four Q School tournaments in 2025 – two in Leicester and a couple in Bangkok – with the action taking place between May 13th and June 1st.
Featured photo credit: WPBSA
Sad to see Anthony Hamilton probably done as a professional; I find it nice to see a quirky and left-field player, a bit of an outlier in the overall pattern of top class snooker play competing and Hamilton certainly fit the bill. In his prime quite a heavy scorer when around the black spot, and capable of scoring enough to easily win a frame in one visit once his hand was on the table. Perhaps he will play on the seniors a bit, or possibly he’s got something a bit different in mind!
Aside from the obvious three, there are not many of those early-90s players left.
I’ve thought that recently. Mark Davis is one and Matthew Stevens turned pro in 1994.
It is astonishing to see Allen drop from first in the rankings at the beginning of the season to tenth at its end.
Has such a massive downfall for a number one in just one season happened before?
Can’t think of another case like that off the top of my head, but you’re right. It is quite the fall.
Jamie Clarke could be reprieved as I can’t see his name on the Q School drawsheets.
Zhao finished fourth on the one year list that was also headed by Trump. Ronnie O’Sullivan finished in 17th.
We witnessed 107 centuries this year, falling two short of the 2022 record of 109. It’s the fourth time we’ve seen a century of centuries at the Crucible.
Mark Williams won the BBC Shot of the Championship for his pressure blue in the Higgins decider. I was perplexed that the Beeb didn’t use Stephen Hendry on the last day. He’s often the analyst for the closing framed of many Triple Crown finals.
China are the ninth country to provide a world champion. It’s also the first time we’ve had three first time winners in successive years. Zhao the youngest winner since Shaun Murphy.
Good spot about Clarke. There were three first-time winners from 2000 to 2002.
Oh yeah, well pointed out!
And 1979, 1980 and 1981
Hamilton is in the Q School draw.
He originally said he’d go to Q School, then he said during the qualifiers that he’d had enough. I expect he’ll play, but we’ll see.
I heard him say that but I reckon he’ll give it a go and then retire if he fails to progress.
World Snooker Tour calendar for next year still needs some filling up as the first event they’ve got currently scheduled is English Open beginning on the September 15th.
You’re right. I had CLS down first for June, but I see now that on their website it’s still the 2024 tournament even though they have it listed in June, 2025.
Don’t worry your favourite event will start soon 😀