World rankings update after the 2024 Snooker Shoot Out

The Shoot Out has one of the more modest prize funds on the World Snooker Tour, but all ranking points could be crucial later in the season when qualification for the Players Series events, seedings, and survival on the professional circuit are all decided. Time will tell on those fronts.

Victory at the Mattioli Arena for 41-year-old Ford - his maiden ranking event crown - has turned the tables on what had been a pretty disastrous season to that point. He began the 2024/25 term inside the world’s top 16, but two match wins all campaign long saw him slip outside that elite bracket on the main rankings, and placed outside of the top 100 on the one-year/seasonal list.

However, the £50,000 he banked for his Shoot Out efforts means he can start looking upwards again. Ford rises two places to 20th in the overall standings, and up a staggering 80 places to 30th on the one-year list. The top 32 players on the latter list qualify for the big-money World Grand Prix to be held in Hong Kong for the first time.

The top 16

Several top 16 players elected to skip the one-frame showpiece. The top 10 positions in the world rankings all remain the same, with world number one Judd Trump still enjoying a huge lead at the top of the global standings.

Big changes to the rankings in this latest revision also come as a result of the prize money from the 2022 Scottish Open being removed due to the two-year rolling cycle.

This means that 2022 title winner Gary Wilson - who also won the tournament in 2023 and is going for a remarkable three-peat in Edinburgh in the coming days - loses £79,500 from his cumulative total which results in a four-place drop from 11th to 15th.

Ali Carter, Barry Hawkins, Si Jiahui and John Higgins all shuffle up one place because of this. Chris Wakelin stays in 16th

17-32

There are no dramatic changes within the 17-32 bracket (Ford’s update has already been referenced above).

Neil Robertson drops down two spots to 19th, meaning Jak Jones is back on the top 16 bubble in 17th, with Xiao Guodong one behind in 18th.

Jack Lisowski goes down two places to 23rd.

33 to 64

Runner-up at the Scottish Open 24 months ago, Joe O’Connor has a sizeable chunk taken from his ranking total which sees him slip down six places to 39th. O’Connor also has more significant prize money to defend later this season.

Yuan Sijun is up four steps to 37th.

There are lots of other small positional changes within this section.

Second season professional Long Zehuang - a semi-finalist on home soil at the Wuhan Open a few months ago - sneaks into the top 64 in 64th as he tries to maintain his tour card for the sport’s top tier.

Outside the top 64

Two-time Crucible qualifier Jamie Clarke drops outside of the world’s top 64 as he goes down three places to number 65, although he is currently inside the top four on the one-year list (for those outside of the top 64 in the world rankings); another way he could keep his professional stripes.

The biggest jump throughout the entire rankings in this latest revision comes courtesy of Shoot Out runner-up Liam Graham, who zips up 15 places from 100th to 85th in the world rankings.

Prior to his run in Leicester, Graham’s biggest payday on the World Snooker Tour was £4,500; he over quadrupled that amount with the £20,000 he claimed for his silver medal finish. The 20-year-old Scot had previously collected £20,000 from professional events before his trip, so he exactly doubled his career earnings at this level from just one event.

In the second year of a two-year tour card, 2023 European under-21 champion Graham has lots of work to do to break into the world’s top 64, but he thrusts himself right into contention of keeping his tour place via the one-year list.

A quarter-finalist at the Mattioli, Huang Jiahao moves up four spots to 113th.

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