Snooker rankings: update after the 2026 China Open

Mark Selby took a significant step toward potentially returning to the top of the snooker rankings after triumphing at the 2026 China Open.

The 43 year-old captured a record fourth China Open crown on Sunday after beating Noppon Saengkham 10-6 in Taiyuan.

With a huge total prize fund of more than £1 million and a whopping £250,000 going to the champion, it was an important early event on the 2026/27 calendar.

Let’s take a look at the impact on the snooker rankings.

Can Mark Selby regain the world number one spot?

Despite losing in the first round and collecting no ranking points from his trip to Taiyuan, Judd Trump stays in the world number one position for now.

The Englishman has held top spot since August in 2024, and he remains in first position on the official two-year standings ahead of Neil Robertson, Zhao Xintong, and Wu Yize.

Following his eighth career ranking success on Chinese soil, Selby leapfrogs his way back into the top five.

Officially, Trump still boasts an apparently healthy lead of more than £350,000 to the chasing pack, but all of that lead and more will be relinquished next week when the £500,000 he won at the 2024 Saudi Arabia Masters will be deducted from his rolling tally.

On the provisional rankings list, there is less than £100,000 separating Zhao (£1,178,550), Robertson (£1,176,200), Wu (£1,109,900), Selby (£1,085,350), and Trump (£1,079,550).

The equation at the upcoming Wuhan Open is quite simple then.

If any one of those five players can triumph in the season’s third ranking tournament, he will end August as snooker’s world number one.

Given Selby’s dominant form last week, it isn’t beyond the realms of possibility that he reclaims the number one status for the first time since 2022.

Should somebody else other than those five emerge with the trophy, the current world number one scrap will likely be determined by who among Zhao and Robertson goes the furthest in the competition.

Where is Noppon Saengkham ranked?

Further down, Shaun Murphy stays in sixth ahead of John Higgins, Mark Williams, and Kyren Wilson with Xiao Guodong in tenth ahead of his Wuhan Open defence.

Barry Hawkins, Chris Wakelin, Mark Allen, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Ding Junhui, and Si Jiahui complete the top 16 as things stand.

Elsewhere, Noppon Saengkham rocketed 18 rungs up the ladder and into 27th place after collecting the £100,000 runner-up prize – the biggest payday of his career.

Semi-finalists Stuart Bingham and Zhou Yuelong are in 19th and 21st respectively, not far off challenging for a top 16 berth.

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	Official 2-Year World Rankings	Aug 17, 2026
1	Judd Trump	£1,579,550
2	Neil Robertson	£1,226,200
3	Zhao Xintong	£1,178,550
4	Wu Yize	£1,129,900
5	Mark Selby	£1,085,350
6	Shaun Murphy	£967,400
7	John Higgins	£962,000
8	Mark Williams	£880,400
9	Kyren Wilson	£733,100
10	Xiao Guodong	£664,500
11	Barry Hawkins	£663,000
12	Chris Wakelin	£590,800
13	Mark Allen	£573,750
14	Ronnie O’Sullivan	£530,750
15	Ding Junhui	£464,850
16	Si Jiahui	£443,000
—	—	—
17	Jack Lisowski	£392,100
18	Zhang Anda	£378,600
19	Stuart Bingham	£378,300
20	Elliot Slessor	£360,700
21	Zhou Yuelong	£359,900
22	Thepchaiya Un-Nooh	£354,200
23	Ali Carter	£308,550
24	Gary Wilson	£304,800
25	Lei Peifan	£288,800
26	Pang Junxu	£284,500
27	Noppon Saengkham	£257,000
28	Hossein Vafaei	£253,600
29	Joe O’Connor	£252,850
30	Stephen Maguire	£236,600
31	David Gilbert	£233,350
32	Jak Jones	£231,300

Players Ranked 33-64 (Click to expand)

Rank	Player	Prize Money
33	Yuan Sijun	£229,400
34	Jimmy Robertson	£200,200
35	Tom Ford	£191,700
36	Jackson Page	£184,250
37	Xu Si	£182,650
38	Anthony McGill	£179,500
39	Luca Brecel	£176,900
40	Stan Moody	£175,700
41	Aaron Hill	£175,600
42	Ryan Day	£170,250
43	Ben Woollaston	£169,000
44	Zak Surety	£166,700
45	Chang Bingyu	£159,100
46	Matthew Selt	£154,650
47	He Guoqiang	£150,800
48	Michael Holt	£142,350
49	Matthew Stevens	£138,100
50	Long Zehuang	£136,450
51	Oliver Lines	£135,200
52	Liu Hongyu	£134,700
53	Martin O’Donnell	£133,400
54	Fan Zhengyi	£124,050
55	Daniel Wells	£123,300
56	Robbie Williams	£121,950
57	Ricky Walden	£117,350
58	Ishpreet Singh Chadha	£115,950
59	Scott Donaldson	£110,750
60	David Lilley	£106,100
61	Lyu Haotian	£105,950
62	Ben Mertens	£99,100
63	Jamie Jones	£96,050
64	Jordan Brown	£92,250

Players Ranked 65-96 (Click to expand)

Rank	Player	Prize Money
65	Jiang Jun	£84,350
66	Liam Pullen	£72,950
67	Louis Heathcote	£68,200
68	Liam Highfield	£67,800
69	Marco Fu	£67,150
70	Dylan Emery	£59,950
71	Iulian Boiko	£59,500
72	Sam Craigie	£58,600
73	Ian Burns	£48,700
74	Steven Hallworth	£48,200
75	David Grace	£46,850
76	Gao Yang	£46,100
77	Yao Pengcheng	£40,850
78	Michal Szubarczyk	£38,450
79	Lan Yuhao	£37,100
80	Xu Yichen	£30,350
81	Zhao Hanyang	£26,600
82	Ross Muir	£24,100
83	Reanne Evans	£24,000
84	Liu Wenwei	£22,100
85	Mateusz Baranowski	£20,900
86	Leone Crowley	£18,000
87	Liam Graham	£16,500
88	Alexander Ursenbacher	£12,600
89	Connor Benzey	£12,000
90	Oliver Brown	£10,500
91	Chatchapong Nasa	£10,500
92	Florian Nuessle	£10,000
93	Fergal Quinn	£10,000
94	Sahil Nayyar	£9,000
95	Jimmy White	£9,000
96	Jamie Clarke	£7,000

Players Ranked 97-128 (Click to expand)

Rank	Player	Prize Money
97	Mitchell Mann	£6,000
98	Ng On Yee	£6,000
99	Hammad Miah	£5,000
100	Cheung Ka Wai	£5,000
101	Julien Leclercq	£4,500
101	Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon	£4,500
103	Andrew Higginson	£3,500
103	Antoni Kowalski	£3,500
105	Mahmoud El Hareedy	£3,000
106	Alfie Burden	£2,500
106	Ashley Carty	£2,500
106	Craig Steadman	£2,500
106	Deng Haohui	£2,500
106	Gong Chenzhi	£2,500
106	Huang Jiahao	£2,500
106	Oliver Sykes	£2,500
113	Liam Davies	£2,000
113	Liu Yang	£2,000
113	Luo Zetao	£2,000
116	Anton Kazakov	£1,000
116	Artemijs Zizins	£1,000
116	Michael Larkov	£1,000
116	Sean O’Sullivan	£1,000
116	Stuart Carrington	£1,000
116	Wang Xinbo	£1,000
122	Ashley Hugill	£0
122	Bai Yulu	£0
122	Panchaya Channoi	£0
122	Paul Norris	£0
122	Phil O’Kane	£0
127	Igor Figueiredo	£0
127	Mina Awad	£0

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How do the 1-year snooker rankings look?

As ever, the one-year snooker rankings will be important on various fronts – notably qualification to three big tournaments in the second half of the season.

The fields for the World Grand Prix, Players Championship, and Tour Championship have typically been comprised using these standings.

The one-year rankings can also provide an avenue back onto the main tour for lower-ranked players who fail to break into the top 64 and secure tour surival.

With only two rankings events staged so far and because there was such a huge fund on offer last week, the list is temporarily skewed by what transpired in China.

Selby, though, already looks assured of featuring in all three of those big weeks on the Players Series at the end of the campaign.

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	Official 1-Year Rankings	Aug 17, 2026
1	Mark Selby	£250,000
2	Noppon Saengkham	£111,000
3	Zhou Yuelong	£55,000
4	Stuart Bingham	£51,000
5	David Gilbert	£48,000
6	Zhang Anda	£33,000
=6	Jak Jones	£33,000
8	Hossein Vafaei	£26,000
9	Neil Robertson	£25,000
=9	Shaun Murphy	£25,000
11	Liu Hongyu	£21,000
12	Chris Wakelin	£20,000
13	Si Jiahui	£17,000
14	Elliot Slessor	£16,500
15	Chang Bingyu	£16,000
16	Kyren Wilson	£15,000
=16	Ronnie O’Sullivan	£15,000
=16	Wu Yize	£15,000
=16	Xiao Guodong	£15,000
20	Jackson Page	£14,000
=20	Pang Junxu	£14,000
22	Dylan Emery	£14,000
=23	Gary Wilson	£13,500
=23	He Guoqiang	£13,500
=23	Jimmy Robertson	£13,500
=23	Luca Brecel	£13,500
=23	Xu Si	£13,500
=28	Aaron Hill	£12,000
=28	Jiang Jun	£12,000
=28	Matthew Selt	£12,000
=31	Ali Carter	£11,500
=31	Iulian Boiko	£11,500
=31	Jack Lisowski	£11,500

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When is the next snooker event?

There are a few days off before the action in China continues with a third World Snooker Tour tournament in a row in the country.

Following the Shanghai Masters invitational and the just-concluded China Open, the Wuhan Open is next on the agenda – returning to the annual schedule for the third time.

The ranking event runs from August 23 to 29 with daily coverage available, as always, right here on SnookerHQ.com.

Featured photo credit: WST