World rankings update after the 2024 UK Snooker Championship: Reviewing the biggest moves

Trump defeated Barry Hawkins 10-8 in a gripping final on Sunday night to collect his second UK crown and a top prize of £250,000. The triumph means he is now over £650,000 clear of reigning World Champion Kyren Wilson who is in second place. It could be some time until Trump’s position is even mathematically threatened.

Despite reaching the semi-finals in York, Mark Allen drops two places from third to fifth, as he was defending the £250k he won at the event from two years earlier. Despite both losing in the first round, Mark Selby and Ronnie O'Sullivan each go up a place in the world rankings to third and fourth, respectively.

The World Snooker Tour professional rankings work on a two-year rolling cycle, meaning you defend the prize money points you won in the respective event you're playing in from two years ago. For example, at the 2025 UK Championship, O'Sullivan will be defending his winner's prize money from 2023.

Shaun Murphy (8th) and Ding Junhui (9th) swap places, which means Murphy is a top seed at the upcoming Masters.

The biggest riser in the top 16 is UK Championship runner-up Barry Hawkins, who goes up seven places to 13th and is back inside the world's elite ranking bracket. This achievement earns him a spot at the Masters. The full first round draw for the 2025 Masters can be viewed here.

Luca Brecel lost in the opening round at the Barbican Centre, but remains seventh in the global standings. However, on the projected end-of-season list, 2023 World Champion Brecel is down in 61st place as he has £500,000 to defend at the next World Championship.

The Belgian is currently nowhere near the top 32 on the one-year list either, meaning he could miss out on all three Players Series events in the second half of the season - the same situation happened last season.

The Top 32

Recent Wuhan Open winner and Champion of Champions runner-up Xiao Guodong drops out of the world's top 16 after one event being in it.

The Chinese cueist - who was making his maiden outing as a top 16 player - lost his first match at the UK Championship, and as a seeded player there, it meant he received zero ranking points from the event.

Xiao goes down three to 19th and misses out on a Masters debut; as does 18th-placed Jak Jones.

Neil Robertson finishes the UK Championship in the bubble position of 17th. The two-time Masters champion will not be at the Alexandra Palace in January, unless there is a withdrawal.

Elsewhere in the top 32, Elliot Slessor goes up two spots to a career-high 30th. Stephen Maguire steps up one and creeps into 32nd.

The Top 64

Dropping outside the top 32 bracket is Joe O’Connor (33rd), and he has sizeable chunks of prize money to defend over the coming months - including the £35,000 he won at the 2022 Scottish Open and the £30,000 from the 2023 Players Championship.

A qualifier for the television stages in York, Jackson Page rises four places and is in a career-high place of 37th.

Last season's World Snooker Tour Rookie of the Year He Guoqiang also made it to the Barbican; he moves up six places into 54th and it appears very likely that he will finish inside the world’s top 64 at the end of the season and preserve his professional tour card.

Ranking event champions Joe Perry and Anthony Hamilton - two of the most recognisable and experienced players from the sport’s top tier - are both in serious danger of being relegated from the professional ranks at the end of the term.

Hamilton is currently 64th and Perry has gone down seven to 57th, although Perry is provisionally 72nd in the end-of-season forecast.

Outside the top 64

We have yet to see Sam Craigie in action on the World Snooker Tour this season, apparently due to neck surgery he has had performed. Because of a last 16 result from the 2022 UK Championship, Craigie drops 11 places to 67th in the updated ranking list.

There has been no correspondence, as yet, to whether Craigie will receive medical dispensation if he gets relegated; there is certainly precedence for this.

One such instance was Martin Gould for this season, although we have not seen the former German Masters winner on the baize at all in 2024, apparently due to a reported back issue.

The biggest riser - in terms of positions - across the world rankings following the 2024 UK Championship is Michael Holt.

Qualifier Holt won six successive matches en route to his second UK quarter-final appearance - 25 years on from his first. The £25,000 he banked zipped him up 17 places to 81st in the rankings; this is his first season back on the pro tour after regaining his card via Q Tour earlier in the year.

Current World Women’s Snooker Champion Bai Yulu had a brilliant run to the final qualifying round of the UK Championship, and the Chinese youngster steps up nine places to 112th.

Long Zehaung (65th), Stan Moody (72nd), Ishpreet Singh Chadha (71st) and Louis Heathcote (70th) are all currently outside the world’s top 64, but respectively they are the top four on the one-year list (for those not in the top 64) which provides them another route to keeping their tour cards for the 2025/26 professional season.

For the full (unofficial) updated world rankings list after the 2024 UK Championship, please visit snooker.org here where you can also view the positional changes of every player.