World snooker rankings update following Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters

Heading into the sport's newest ranking event - which carried a top prize of £500,000 - seven players had a chance of mathematically leaving Riyadh as the world number one, but it was the incumbent top cueist Trump who significantly strengthened his position.

Three of the seven in contention pre-tournament picked up no ranking points due to losing their opening match, and as soon as Ronnie O'Sullivan exited in the last eight, Trump was guaranteed to continue his stint on top.

The half-a-million pounds Trump pocketed puts him £495,500 clear of second place, and with only a very modest amount (by his standards) of prize money to defend this season, the 35-year-old Englishman could well extend his advantage and be world number one for a while without even being challenged.

Elsewhere in the top 16, there are many changes, although mainly subtle.

Kyren Wilson (his highest ever ranking) and Mark Allen swap places in 2nd and 3rd respectively, while the runner-up in Saudi, Mark Williams, moves up three places to 6th. However, like Trump, Williams only has a small portion of his overall rankings tally to defend this season, so he could well go higher at some point this term.

Williams has leapfrogged Luca Brecel (7th), Shaun Murphy (8th) and Ding Junhui (9th), who each drop a place.

Gary Wilson moves up one place to 10th and replaces Ali Carter who goes down one to 11th.

One of the biggest ranking stories following Riyadh is that 22-year-old Si Jiahui has broken into the world's top 16 for the first time in his career. The Chinese cueist’s semi-final run and £100,000 payday zipped him up nine places to 13th in the standings.

Tom Ford (14th), Jak Jones (15th) and John Higgins (16th) all drop a place; Higgins manages to cling on and preserve his near 30-year-plus unbroken spell in the sport's elite bracket.

Ronnie O’Sullivan (4th), Mark Selby (5th) and Zhang Anda (12th) stay where they were.

Ranking positions 17 to 64

Because of his opening match defeat in the Saudi capital, Barry Hawkins drops two places and outside of the 16 into 18th.

There were notable jumps upwards for several players, including quarter-finalist Xiao Guodong who shifted six places into the top 32 in 29th.

Elliot Slessor is getting closer to a top 32 bow; he advanced seven positions to 35th.

The £50,000 Jimmy Robertson collected for a run to the last eight shoots him up 14 places to 38th.

The other two big movers inside the top 64 following the rankings update are Scott Donaldson (50th to 43rd) and Ben Woollaston (59th to 52nd).

Outside the top 64

The rankings picture further down the standings can be a bit complicated with the majority of players on either the first or second year of their tour card; they don’t have two-year’s worth of points on their tally.

The monetary values between players is generally smaller, so a prize money haul can make a big difference.

Lei Peifan is a prime example of that. Returning to the professional circuit this season, Lei was the only player at the inaugural Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters to reach round five (last 32) having started his campaign in round one. The £20,000 he added to his rankings moved him up 19 places to 87th.

Rookie professional Haydon Pinhey picked up his first prize money as a tour card holder; the £7,000 rises him up 12 places to 103rd.

The one-year list: Tournament qualification and tour survival at stake

The World Snooker Tour one-year list is different to the official world rankings, as only cumulative prize money won from ranking events this 2024/25 season counts. So far, that’s money earned from the Championship League, Xi’an Grand Prix and Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters - the first three completed ranking events this term.

This one-year (or ‘seasonal’) list is crucial as it’s the only way players can qualify for the prestigious and lucrative Players Series events later in the season: World Grand Prix (top 32), Players Championship (top 16) and Tour Championship (top 8).

Unsurprisingly, Judd Trump is on top of this list by some distance. Mark Williams is 2nd and Kyren Wilson 3rd.

The remaining top eight positions are taken by: Si Jiahui (4th), Shaun Murphy (5th), Ronnie O’Sullivan (6th), Jimmy Robertson (7th) and Xiao Guodong (8th).

This one-year list is also a way players can stay on the professional tour next season, even if they don’t finish inside the top 64 of the world rankings at the end of this season.

The top four money earners from this season’s ranking events who finish outside of the top 64 of the world rankings and don’t already have a guaranteed tour card for next season, win a fresh two-year tour card.

Visit snooker.org for the latest unofficial world rankings with positional changes following the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters.