With a lot prize cash on provide, the UK Championship was an necessary occasion by way of the snooker rankings.
Ronnie O’Sullivan collected the £250,000 champion’s cheque due to his 10-7 victory over Ding Junhui in Sunday’s last.
Victory for the Rocket took his report tally of UK crowns to eight and his general rating title whole to an impressive 40.
High 16
Whereas there have been threats to his world primary standing because the starting of this season, O’Sullivan is now assured to complete 2023 on the high of the official snooker rankings record.
Judd Trump bolstered his place in second with a run to the semi-finals on the Barbican Centre.
The rest of the highest seven stays the identical, with world champion Luca Brecel in third forward of Mark Allen.
Mark Selby, Neil Robertson, and Shaun Murphy are nonetheless in fifth, sixth, and seventh respectively.
Robertson, nevertheless, has loads of rating factors to defend within the second half of this season and will quickly face a pointy plummet down the pecking order.
Mark Williams rises above Kyren Wilson into eighth place, with John Higgins rounding off the highest ten.
A second successive UK Championship last look for Ding, in the meantime, has seen him rise again to quantity 12 on the planet behind Ali Carter.
Zhang Anda, Robert Milkins, Barry Hawkins, and Jack Lisowski full the highest 16, who’ve all been invited to take part within the prestigious Masters invitational subsequent month.
Hossein Vafaei’s run to the semi-finals of the UK Championship was not fairly sufficient to see him rejoin the elite bracket in time for Ally Pally.
The Iranian completed simply £6,000 shy of the world quantity 16 rating, whereas Tom Ford dropped out after briefly turning into a high 16 member for the primary time in his profession.
| Official 2-Yr World Rankings | Dec 5, 2023 | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ronnie O’Sullivan | £1,137,500 |
| 2 | Judd Trump | £916,000 |
| 3 | Luca Brecel | £811,500 |
| 4 | Mark Allen | £791,000 |
| 5 | Mark Selby | £634,000 |
| 6 | Neil Robertson | £483,500 |
| 7 | Shaun Murphy | £481,500 |
| 8 | Mark Williams | £447,500 |
| 9 | Kyren Wilson | £395,000 |
| 10 | John Higgins | £391,000 |
| 11 | Ali Carter | £384,000 |
| 12 | Ding Junhui | £375,000 |
| 13 | Zhang Anda | £329,000 |
| 14 | Robert Milkins | £315,500 |
| 15 | Barry Hawkins | £315,000 |
| 16 | Jack Lisowski | £307,000 |
| — | — | — |
| 17 | Hossein Vafaei | £301,000 |
| 18 | Tom Ford | £299,000 |
| 19 | Ryan Day | £265,500 |
| 20 | Gary Wilson | £224,500 |
Race to the World Grand Prix
There are solely two extra counting occasions earlier than the 32 spots within the World Grand Prix lineup are confirmed.
The profitable occasion in January will characteristic solely the very best gamers from the one-year rankings record – based mostly on performances in the course of the 2023/24 snooker season.
O’Sullivan, who turns 48 on Tuesday, strikes as much as second on the one-year standings behind Trump.
With a lot cash already earned from this marketing campaign, the pair may even undoubtedly characteristic within the 16-player Gamers Championship and the 12-player Tour Championship – occasions that each depend on the identical record.
One participant assured to not characteristic on the World Grand Prix is Neil Robertson, who has opted to skip the upcoming Snooker Shoot Out and Scottish Open.
The Australian has been struggling for kind for greater than a 12 months and can head residence over Christmas for some much-needed recuperation together with his household.
There are a variety of different high-profile opponents who might want to produce over the following couple of weeks with the intention to qualify for the World Grand Prix in Leicester.
Luca Brecel, who hasn’t entered the Shoot Out, and Kyren Wilson are different members of the highest 16 who’ve been underperforming this time period and provisionally stand beneath the highest 32 cut-off level.
Reigning World Grand Prix champion Mark Allen, in the meantime, is simply on the cusp at thirty second and within the last qualifying place.
| 1-Yr Snooker Rankings | Dec fifth, 2023 | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Judd Trump | £403,000 |
| 2 | Ronnie O’Sullivan | £306,500 |
| 3 | Zhang Anda | £255,500 |
| 4 | Mark Williams | £172,500 |
| 5 | Barry Hawkins | £159,500 |
| 6 | Ding Junhui | £145,500 |
| 7 | Tom Ford | £131,500 |
| 8 | Mark Selby | £109,000 |
| 9 | Ali Carter | £104,500 |
| 10 | Hossein Vafaei | £89,000 |
| 11 | Lyu Haotian | £75,000 |
| 12 | John Higgins | £71,500 |
| 13 | Chris Wakelin | £70,500 |
| 14 | Zhou Yuelong | £65,500 |
| 15 | Stephen Maguire | £60,000 |
| 16 | Noppon Saengkham | £56,500 |
| 17 | Jack Lisowski | £56,500 |
| 18 | Xiao Guodong | £56,500 |
| 19 | Shaun Murphy | £56,000 |
| 20 | Matthew Selt | £53,500 |
| 21 | David Gilbert | £51,000 |
| 22 | Yuan Sijun | £50,500 |
| 23 | Wu Yize | £50,000 |
| 24 | Jordan Brown | £49,000 |
| 25 | Ricky Walden | £46,500 |
| 26 | Thepchaiya Un-Nooh | £44,000 |
| 27 | He Guoqiang | £39,500 |
| 28 | Robert Milkins | £39,500 |
| 29 | Jamie Jones | £39,000 |
| 30 | Pang Junxu | £39,000 |
| 31 | Robbie Williams | £38,500 |
| 32 | Mark Allen | £38,500 |
| — | — | — |
| 37 | Luca Brecel | £35,000 |
| 45 | Stuart Bingham | £31,500 |
| 47 | Kyren Wilson | £31,000 |
| 86 | Neil Robertson | £15,500 |
When is the following snooker occasion?
The Snooker Shoot Out is the following rating occasion on the 2023/24 calendar.
The divisive event takes place from Wednesday, December 6 till Saturday, December 9 on the Swansea Enviornment in Wales.
Featured picture credit score: WST