Who is the best or most deserving player without a Triple Crown title in snooker? A top 10 list

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Honourable mentions to Willie Thorne and Nigel Bond who just missed out on the top 10.

10) NEAL FOULDS

Former world number three Neal Foulds won ranking event gold at the 1986 International Open and appeared in a further two ranked finals. He also claimed invitational titles at the Dubai Masters and Scottish Masters.

The Englishman reached the 1986 UK Championship final but was denied the title - as so many people were during that time - by Steve Davis who won the title for the third successive year and fifth time overall.

Foulds tasted the one-table environment at the Crucible in 1987 when he made the semi-finals where he was stopped by reigning champion Joe Johnson. Now a very esteemed commentator and broadcaster, Foulds was also a three-time Masters semi-finalist.

9) RYAN DAY

On and off for the past 20 years, Ryan Day has mixed it with the best in the sport and featured at the business end of multiple ranking events. He was labelled by many as the 'best player yet to win a ranking event' before cutting up that tag with victory at the 2017 Riga Masters. Since then, Day has collected a further three ranking crowns, including at the British Open in 2022.

It has not really clicked for Welshman Day in the Triple Crown events, though, with a semi-final at the UK Championship representing his best return in that trio of competitions. He has reached the quarter-finals of the Masters and World Championship three times each.

Along with a highest ranking of number six, Day is approaching 500 career centuries, from which four were maximum 147s.

8) RICKY WALDEN

Still mixing it with the world's best over 20 years on from his professional debut, Ricky Walden was once as high as number six in the rankings.

Walden is a three-time ranking event champion, with all those triumphs coming in China where he defeated Ronnie O'Sullivan (2008 Shanghai Masters), Stuart Bingham (2012 Wuxi Classic) and Mark Allen (2014 International Championship) in the finals for those respective honours.

A two-time UK Championship semi-finalist, Walden was close to reaching the World Championship final in 2013 having led Barry Hawkins 12-8 in their last four match before being defeated 17-14.

7) STEPHEN LEE

With one of the best cue actions the sport has ever seen, Stephen Lee was a professional for over two decades before his lengthy ban from the sport due to match-fixing.

Lee made nine ranking event finals, winning five of those across three different decades, and had a career-high ranking position of number five.

The Englishman didn't really discover his best results in the sport's three biggest events, although he was runner-up at the 2008 Masters. He twice made the semi-finals of the UK Championship, and appeared in the one-table set-up (semi-finals) at the Crucible in the 2003 World Championship.

6) TONY KNOWLES

Two-time ranking event champion Tony Knowles was within touching distance of becoming the world number one in the 1980s, which would have been an incredible feat considering the dominance of Steve Davis throughout that decade.

The winner of the 1982 International Open and the 1983 Professional Players Tournament, Knowles also reached two other ranking event finals during his career.

Knowles become an overnight sensation to the wider sporting public in 1982 when he dumped defending champion Davis out, 10-1, in the first round of the World Championship at the Crucible Theatre.

From 1983, Knowles made the semi-finals in Sheffield three of the next four years, although he just finished short of securing a berth in the showpiece contest; in 83 he was two up with three to play against Cliff Thorburn.

The former world number two was a two-time semi-finalist at the Masters.

5) JAMES WATTANA

Asia's original snooker superstar, James Wattana's performances and achievements have perhaps been overlooked due to recency bias. A household name in his home country of Thailand, Wattana was a trailblazer across south-east Asia and the continent as a whole, helping create a huge boom in popularity within the region and thirst for top tier events to held and televised there, which benefited everyone involved with the sport.

Wattana (pictured at the top) proved that a player from Asia could consistently mix it with the world's best players and challenge for major honours. In the early 1990s - at a time when you had a 'big four' of Hendry, Parrott, White and Davis - Wattana rose to number three in the global standings.

A professional in total for over three decades, Wattana won three ranking event titles, this included the first two editions of the Thailand Open where he defeated Steve Davis and Ronnie O'Sullivan respectively in those finals. Wattana - a fantastic break builder who amassed three maximum 147 breaks during a period where perfection was rarer than it is today - also won the unranked World Matchplay title in 1992.

The Thai reached the latter stages of several Triple Crown events in the early to mid 90s. He lost to Stephen Hendry in the 1993 Masters final and made the semi-finals again the following year. Wattana was a two-time semi-finalist at both the World Championship (1993, 1997) and UK Championship (1991, 1994).

4) EDDIE CHARLTON

It is very hard to rank someone like Eddie Charlton on this list - whose career straddles both the old and modern periods of the sport - but the great Australian was a very prominent figure for many years and came close on several occasions to becoming the world champion.

A three-time winner of Pot Black, Charlton was a former world number three who had a long professional career spanning around 30 years. He even qualified for the 1992 World Championship at the Crucible Theatre in his 60s.

Charlton was within touching distance of wearing the world crown on three occasions. In a one-off challenge match in 1968 he lost 39-34 to defending champion John Pulman.

In the 1970s, Charlton was twice denied snooker's ultimate prize by Ray Reardon. In 1973 he lost 38-32, but most painfully in 1975 on home soil in Melbourne, Charlton was pipped in a deciding frame, 31-30.

He reached the semi-finals of the Championship a further six times, three of which were at its new home of the Crucible.

Charlton missed out on the early editions of the UK Championship due to ineligibility, but thrice reached the semi-finals of the Masters - two of those occasions he missed out on the final via deciding frames.

3) MARCO FU

Hong Kong's Marco Fu enjoyed a glittering amateur career, winning both the world under-21 and amateur championship titles within the same year in 1997.

The following year Fu joined the professional ranks and instantly made a huge impact during his rookie season as he went on an incredible run to the final of the 1998 Grand Prix.

Somewhat surprisingly, it wasn't until nine years later - in the same tournament - that Fu lifted his first ranking event trophy, although he had won the invitational Premier League in 2003. Two more ranking crowns were secured in subsequent years in Australia and Scotland. On top of these, Fu made five other ranking finals.

Fu has had multiple deep runs in all three Triple Crown events. In the 2008 UK Championship final he was ousted by Shaun Murphy, 10-9, and was denied another UK final appearance in 2016 when pipped 6-5 by Ronnie O'Sullivan in the semi-finals.

A second Triple Crown final came at the Masters in 2011 where he lost out to fellow Asian cueist Ding Junhui in the first Masters final to feature two non-UK players.

Twice, Fu has come agonisingly close to booking a ticket to snooker's biggest showpiece; he was shaded 17-16 by Peter Ebdon in the semi-finals of the 2006 World Championship, and 17-15 by Selby in the 2016 staging at the Crucible.

Over 500 professional centuries have been crafted by former world number five Fu; five of those were 147s, including an extra-special one in front of his home fans at the 2022 Hong Kong Masters.

2) BARRY HAWKINS

Barry Hawkins played beautiful snooker on his way to the 2013 World Championship final where he really pushed Ronnie O'Sullivan before having to settle for silver.

A professional for a quarter of a century, Hawkins has been a regular within the world's top 16 for much of the past 15 years or so, and has a highest career ranking of four.

Prior to his run to the final in 2013, the Crucible had been a source of frustration for Hawkins having not won a match there in six attempts. He then went on a bit of a ridiculous run at snooker's most famous venue, making the one-table set-up there (at least the semi-finals) five years out of six from 2013 onwards. The one time he didn't during that spell was a quarter-final finish.

A two-time finalist at the Masters where he was denied by O'Sullivan (2016) and Neil Robertson (2022), Hawkins is a four-time ranking event champion and has made 10 ranking finals overall.

In 2024, he appeared in his fourth Triple Crown final and his first at the UK Championship. Despite a brilliant, battling display where he refused to give in, he was defeated by Judd Trump 10-8 in the title tie.

'The Hawk' is in the elite club of making at least 500 century breaks in professional competition; three of those were 147s.

1) ALI CARTER

A professional player since the late 1990s, despite health issues, Ali Carter has spent big spells of his career within the sport's elite top 16 and was once ranked as high as number two in the world.

Carter is the most decorated player on this list with six ranking event titles to his name, spanning from 2009 to 2024. He has reached a further seven ranking event finals.

He is a two-time World Championship runner-up at the Crucible Theatre, on both occasions being denied the sport's blue riband prize by Ronnie O'Sullivan in 2008 and 2012. He also made the one-table set-up in Sheffield in 2010.

'The Captain' has also appeared in two Masters finals; in 2020 he was defeated by Stuart Bingham, and in 2024 it was O'Sullivan who again stopped him lifting a Triple Crown trophy for the first time.

Now in his mid-40s but having produced some of his best and most consistent snooker ever in recent years, Carter has compiled over 400 professional century breaks, including three 147s - one of those (his first) arriving on the Crucible stage in 2008.