World rankings update after the 2024 Scottish Open Snooker

Lei - who began the televised stages in Edinburgh as the world number 84 - defeated Chinese compatriot and fellow 21-year-old Wu Yize 9-5 in the final to claim his maiden ranking event title.

There are several interesting moves throughout the updated standings and we review the biggest stories, here:

World number one and the top 16

The 2022 English Open was played in December of that year, therefore the prize money ranking points earned by players during that event have now been removed as per the two-year rolling ranking system.

The biggest losers in this case are Mark Selby (winner) and Luca Brecel (runner-up) who contested that final and didn’t make up these lost points at the recent Scottish Open.

In the updated rankings, Selby goes down two places to 5th, meaning Ronnie O’Sullivan (now 3rd) and Mark Allen (now 4th) each go up one spot.

Shaun Murphy (now 7th) and Brecel (now 8th) swap places, this is despite Brecel appearing in his first ranking event quarter-final of the season.

9th to 14th in the rankings remains the same; Chris Wakelin (now 15th) and Gary Wilson (now 16th) trade positions.

Judd Trump did not play in this year’s Scottish Open, but he remains miles out in front as the world number one. However, reigning World Champion Kyren Wilson has gained a small bit of ground on Trump in second place.

17th to 32nd

Not too many notable changes in this bracket of the world rankings; Xiao Guodong (now 17th) and Jak Jones (now 18th) have swapped, as too have Tom Ford (now 19th) and Neil Robertson (now 20th) in the positions just outside the sport’s elite top 16 club.

Runner-up at the Scottish Open Wu Yize rises two places to a career-high of 25th.

Stephen Maguire (up two spots to 30th) slightly eases his top 32 concerns, while Zhou Yuelong - who has had a quiet season, so far - holds on to his top 32 status in 32nd.

33rd to 64th

The biggest jump - by absolute streets - in this latest rankings revision is unsurprisingly for new ranking event champion Lei Peifan who powers up 41 places to a career-high of 43rd.

Lei collected £100,000 for his heroics in the Scottish capital city - five times more than his previous highest payday on the professional tour. As this is his first season back on the World Snooker Tour following relegation in 2023, Lei has got around another 18 months worth of points to potentially be added to his total, with nothing coming off.

Besides this seismic adjustment, though, there aren’t too many notable changes within the 33 to 64 bracket, with only a few players who have moved by more than two places:

• Ben Woollaston: down 3 to 49th
• Matthew Stevens: down 4 to 54th
• Long Zehaung: up 3 to 61st
• Joe Perry: down 3 to 62nd
• Tian Pengfei: down 4 to 64th

Outside the top 64

A stalwart of the professional snooker scene ever since 1991, former German Masters champion Anthony Hamilton goes down two places to 65th in the latest standings. If the season ended now, 53-year-old Hamilton would be relegated from the circuit.

Again, not too many noteworthy mentions of ranking changes in this section either, although Dean Young moves up five places to 93rd.

Martin Gould - who we have not seen in action at all in 2024 - moves down seven positions to 95th.

The One-Year List

At the end of the season, if a player is not inside the world’s top 64 or still has a two-year tour card, another way they can keep their professional status is via the one-year list.

Separate to the main world rankings (which works on a two-year rolling system), the one-year list accumulates ranking points won from this season, only. The four highest ranked players on this list - who are not in the top 64 of the main rankings and don’t already have a card for the 2025/26 term - will stay on and win a two-year card.

Currently, the four players in possession of these particular berths are Stan Moody, Ishpreet Singh Chadha, Jamie Clarke and Louis Heathcote, however, lots can change from now until the end of the season.

For full, unofficial lists of the updated world rankings and the one-year/seasonal list - including positional changes - please visit snooker.org here.