With just over three weeks to go until the 2026 World Snooker Championship gets under way at the Crucible Theatre, the seeding picture is beginning to take shape.
As ever, the top 16 from the official world rankings after the conclusion of the penultimate ranking event of the campaign will be seeded automatically through to the venue stages in Sheffield.
Ahead of next week’s Tour Championship, 15 out of the 16 seeded players are already known with just Ding Junhui left to sweat it out as he clings onto the final guaranteed ticket.
The bad news for Ding is that he can still be caught, but the good news is that there is just one player in the Tour Championship lineup who isn’t already ranked inside the world’s elite bracket.
That is man-of-the-moment Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, who emerged as the World Open champion in spectacular fashion just a few days ago in Yushan.
The £175,000 that Un-Nooh earned for that triumph has catapulted him up the rankings, with a top ten position on the one-year rankings more than enough to see him qualify for the 12-strong Tour Champs in Manchester.
On the official two-year list, Un-Nooh is up to 22nd and would usurp Ding into the top 16 if he could manage to continue his recent hot streak of form.
The Thai needs to secure back-to-back successes, however, and the £150,000 top prize at the Manchester Central if he’s to safeguard an unlikely last-gasp seeding slot for the 2026 World Snooker Championship.
Ding was memorably forced into the qualifying competition back in 2016 when he proceeded to go all the way to the final.
Even so, the 38 year-old will desperately be hoping that someone at the Tour Championship can do him a favour and send Un-Nooh home early instead.
If Ding were to hang on to the 16th seeding, it brings a mouthwatering prospect one step closer to becoming a reality.
With Zhao Xintong representing the top seed at the Worlds following his breakthrough success for China a year ago, there could be a mega all-Chinese clash between Zhao and Ding in the second round in Sheffield.
Zhao is one of four players whose seeding position for the 2026 World Snooker Championship is already set in stone.
Judd Trump, Kyren Wilson, and Neil Robertson are also fixed into their slots in the draw as the second, third, and fourth seeds respectively.
2026 Tour Championship prize money
Champion: £150,000
Runner-up: £60,000
Semi-final: £40,000
Quarter-final: £30,000
Last 12: £20,000
Highest Break: £10,000
Total: £500,000
John Higgins is the fifth seed provisionally with Si Jiahui down as the 15th seed as things stand, but their starting points in Sheffield and those of all the players in between could yet change.
Mark Williams (6), Mark Selby (7), Shaun Murphy (8), Wu Yize (10), Barry Hawkins (11), Chris Wakelin (13), and Mark Allen (14) are each in the Tour Championship so could move depending on how they fare and how the other results transpire.
Xiao Guodong and Ronnie O’Sullivan occupy the ninth and 12th seeding positions provisionally, but neither will participate in next week’s ranking event.
Looking at the provisional World Championship draw, O’Sullivan and Higgins could end up meeting each other as early as the second round with Robertson also in the same quarter.
Either way, how the World Championship seeding falls will act as an interesting subplot as the players chase the campaign’s second-last ranking crown.
Provisional World Snooker Championship Seeding
Fixed seeding position = blue
Participating in the Tour Championship = bold
Note: Guaranteed ranking points from the Tour Championship have been included
1. Zhao Xintong – £976,550 (vs 16th seed in R2)
2. Judd Trump – £1,615,550 (vs 15th seed in R2)
3. Kyren Wilson – £1,367,100 (vs 14th seed in R2)
4. Neil Robertson – £1,135,550 (vs 13th seed in R2)
5. John Higgins – £878,350 (vs 12th seeds in R2)
6. Mark Williams – £853,400 (vs 11th seed in R2)
7. Mark Selby – £789,350 (vs 10th seed in R2)
8. Shaun Murphy – £756,800 (vs 9th seed in R2)
9. Xiao Guodong – £643,900
10. Wu Yize – £615,900
11. Barry Hawkins – £605,350
12. Ronnie O’Sullivan – £571,250
13. Chris Wakelin – £539,200
14. Mark Allen – £497,750
15. Si Jiahui – £469,400
16. Ding Junhui – £434,850
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21. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh – £346,600
2026 Tour Championship draw
Round of 12 (bo19)
Barry Hawkins vs Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Judd Trump vs Mark Allen
Mark Williams vs John Higgins
Wu Yize vs Chris Wakelin
Quarter-Finals (bo19)
Neil Robertson vs Hawkins/Un-Nooh
Shaun Murphy vs Trump/Allen
Mark Selby vs Williams/Higgins
Zhao Xintong vs Wu/Wakelin
Featured photo credit: WST
It is interesting, although Ding Junhui lives in Sheffield, he has played 8 tournaments outside the UK while only performing in the English Open, Masters and UK Championships at home. He did not perform in almost half the tournaments.