World snooker rankings update after Players Championship: Career-high position for Zhao
Zhao Xintong is up to a career-high world ranking position of number five following his title victory at the 2026 Players Championship.
The reigning world champion defeated John Higgins 10-7 in the final at the Telford International Centre on Sunday night to claim the £150,000 top prize.
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The 28-year-old's fifth ranking title overall, his latest triumph represents back-to-back ranked accolades on the World Snooker Tour having won the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong only a fortnight before.
On the updated world rankings list - which gets revised after every completed ranking tournament - Zhao has moved up two places to fifth, eclipsing his previous personal best grading of sixth which he achieved in 2022.
This is Zhao's first full season back as a professional following his ban from the sport. Because of that - unlike those around him in the global standings - he has no sizeable prize money to defend from his rankings until the 2027 World Championship.
He will surely at some stage be in contention to become world number one; fellow countryman Ding Junhui is the only player from Asia who has climbed to the top of the rankings mountain before.
On the one-year/seasonal list, Zhao zooms up five places to second - only behind Saudi Arabia Masters champion Neil Robertson. It's an incredible turnaround from only a few weeks ago when he was struggling to get into the top 16 and qualify for the Players Championship altogether.
Elsewhere in the elite top 16 bracket, there are no positional changes inside the top four, with world number one Judd Trump stretching his lead over second-placed Kyren Wilson who didn't qualify for Telford.
Players runner-up Higgins (now 6th) and Mark Selby (7th) each drop a place due to Zhao leapfrogging them both.
Chris Wakelin moves up two to 13th and swaps with Ding who is down two to 15th. China's original snooker superstar faces an anxious wait on whether he will be a top 16 seed for the Crucible in a few months time.
1) Judd Trump
2) Kyren Wilson
3) Neil Robertson
4) Mark Williams
5) Zhao Xintong +2
6) John Higgins -1
7) Mark Selby -1
8) Shaun Murphy
9) Mark Allen
10) Xiao Guodong
11) Ronnie O'Sullivan
12) Wu Yize
13) Chris Wakelin +2
14) Barry Hawkins
15) Ding Junhui -2
16) Si Jiahui
17) Stuart Bingham
18) Zhang Anda +2
19) Jak Jones -1
20) Ali Carter +1
21) Elliot Slessor +1
22) Jack Lisowski +1
23) Gary Wilson -4
24) David Gilbert
25) Zhou Yuelong +3
26) Stephen Maguire -1
27) Pang Junxu -1
28) Joe O'Connor -1
29) Lei Peifan +1
30) Tom Ford -1
31) Yuan Sijun
32) Hossein Vafaei
(Positional changes in brackets)
Prize money earned from the 2024 Welsh Open was removed from players' totals at this latest rankings juncture.
That was bad news for Gary Wilson - winner of the Welsh title two years ago - who loses £80,000 from his cumulative rolling tally and goes down four spots to 23rd.
Further down the standings, runner-up in Llandudno 24 months ago Martin O'Donnell falls from 47th to 59th due to the removal of £35,000 from his total.
There is no break for the professional circuit with the 2026 Welsh Open starting the morning after the Players Championship finished, so the rankings will change again next week.
At that revision, prize money earned from the 2024 Players Championship - which was won by Mark Allen who defeated Zhang Anda in the final - will be taken away.
For the full, unofficial world rankings list, visit snooker.org here.