Who are the top 16 seeds at the 2025 UK Snooker Championship in York?

Held annually since its inaugural edition in 1977, the UK Championship is the first Triple Crown event of the season. The 2025 staging carries a total prize fund of over £1.2 million, from which £250,000 will be pocketed by the eventual champion.

Down the years, the tournament has switched between different formats, but organisers and broadcasters seem very happy with the current arrangement that has been in place since 2022, having gone from a flat draw back to a tiered system.

In total, 144 players are scheduled to be in this year's event, although entrants enter the fray depending on their world ranking position following the completion of the 2025 International Championship, which was the final ranking event before the UK.

The world's top 16 ranked players after that event in Nanjing have made the automatic cut for the main venue, BBC-televised stages in York.

The main draw at the Barbican consists of just 32 players. The top 16 as per their seeding positions are already assigned their positions in the drawsheet, and they will be joined by the 16 players who emerge from the qualifying rounds held at the Robin Park Leisure Centre in Wigan just a few days before.

These qualifiers will then be randomly drawn against the seeds for round one.

The two players who were already assured of their seeding position at the 2025 UK Championship were Judd Trump and Zhao Xintong.

As per competition rules, reigning and defending champion Trump is the number one seed while current world champion Zhao is seed number two. They are in opposite halves of the draw.

World number one Trump won his second UK crown last year when he defeated Barry Hawkins 10-8 in the final. 'The Ace in the Pack' is aiming to become only the second player this century to retain the title (Ronnie O'Sullivan did so with triumphs in 2017 & 2018).

Zhao will be looking to join an exclusive band of players who have held both the World and UK Championship titles at the same time. The Crucible king from China won his maiden ranking event title at the UK in 2021.

Kyren Wilson, Neil Robertson, Mark Williams, Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Higgins, and Mark Allen complete the top eight seeds - of those players, the only one who hasn't lifted the UK Championship is trophy is Wilson, who is seeking the second Triple Crown event title of his career after Crucible glory in 2024.

Snooker history was made in 1993 when a 17-year-old O'Sullivan defeated world champion and world number one Stephen Hendry 10-6 in the UK final to become the youngest-ever winner of a ranking event title; a record that still stands today.

'The Rocket' has since claimed a further seven UK titles - 1997, 2001, 2007, 2014, 2017, 2018 and 2023 - and he will be going for a record-extending ninth this time out having entered the competition and stating his intentions for playing in it.

In fact, 10 of the top 11 seeds have all been UK Championship winners in the past with seed number nine Ding Junhui (winner in 2005, 2009, 2019), seed number ten Shaun Murphy (2008) and seed number 11 Mark Selby (2012, 2016) all returning.

Back-to-back Wuhan Open champion Xiao Guodong is a seed for a second consecutive year, while Chinese compatriot Wu Yize - the newly-minted International Championship title winner - makes his bow as a top 16 player.

The 22-year-old claimed his maiden ranking title on home soil earlier in November when he defeated John Higgins in the final. Having not been involved at the subsequent Champion of Champions or Riyadh Season Championship, Wu’s first engagement as a ranking champion will be in York.

Last year’s runner-up Hawkins, Gary Wilson, and Si Jiahui complete the 16 who already have a ticket for York.