The tussle for world number one during the 2024 World Snooker Championship

At the time of writing (during the quarter-finals of the 2024 World Snooker Championship), only three players can now finish the 2023/24 professional snooker season as the world's number one ranked player.

Before a ball was struck at the Crucible, eight cueists could mathematically claim top spot, but early eliminations for Luca Brecel, Mark Selby, Mark Williams, Ding Junhui and Shaun Murphy have pushed them all out of contention for the accolade.

Ronnie O'Sullivan is the current world number one, and has been for over two years now - his longest ever unbroken stint at the summit. However, with the way the two-year rolling rankings work, O'Sullivan has to defend the £500,000 he earned from winning the 2022 World Championship 24 months ago.

Because of this scenario, the only way O’Sullivan can retain the number one spot after the 2024 World Championship is by winning the blue riband event for a modern-day record eighth time. No other permutation will do for him, regardless of how anyone else does.

The provisional world number one is Mark Allen, however, he can not collect any more prize money points due to his dramatic last 16 exit on the final black on Monday night. He is now relying on results to go his way to become the first Northern Irishman to reach the top.

World number two Judd Trump - winner of five ranking titles this season already - is unsurprisingly in the mix to regain the world number one crown.

If Trump gets to the final, he will be number one guaranteed, regardless of his result in the title match. Trump may meet O’Sullivan in the semi-finals.

Looking forward to next season, O’Sullivan and Trump could be in a constant duel for the world number one spot due to both having relatively little prize money to defend from ordinary 2022/23 campaigns in ranking events. In contrast, Allen has over £400,000 to retain from just three events alone.

However, with the inaugural big money Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters coming up in a few months time, several names will be back in play to become world number one.