Who are the top seeds for the 2024 UK Championship Snooker? Top 16 players confirmed

The main venue stages of this season’s first Triple Crown event will take place at the Barbican Centre in York between November 23 to December 1. A popular venue with players and fans, it has firmly established itself as the home of the UK Championship, hosting the tournament every year since 2011 (expect for 2020 due to Covid-19).

A total of 144 players are set to play in this year’s UK Championship, although only 32 will make it to the two-table set-up in York.

These 32 players consist of the world’s top 16 who are all seeded and go straight through to the venue, and the 16 qualifiers who emerge from the qualifying rounds which are completed at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester between November 16-21.

The UK Championship currently uses a tiered draw format, meaning players enter the competition at different stages depending on their world ranking position. There are four qualifying rounds in Leicester, with the lowest ranked players and invited amateur wildcards starting out in the first round. Cueists ranked 17 to 48 enter in round three.

Seeding positions for the 2024 UK Championship were determined by the updated world rankings following the conclusion of the 2024 International Championship that finished on November 10.

All those ranked outside of the world’s top 16 at that point need to go to the qualifying rounds, this includes three-time UK Champion Neil Robertson and World Championship runner-up Jak Jones who both just missed out on the automatic cut.

Full list of top seeds for the 2024 UK Snooker Championship

As the defending UK champion, Ronnie O’Sullivan was always going to be the number one seed regardless of his ranking, and the record eight-time winner of this title will sit at the top of the draw.

Reigning World Champion Kyren Wilson is the number two seed, and current world number one Judd Trump is seeded three. Both Wilson and Trump are placed in the bottom half of the draw.

Chris Wakelin and Xiao Guodong both managed to get into the world’s top 16 for the first time in their careers following very deep runs at the International Championship in Nanjing.

The top 16 seeds and their positions in the 2024 UK Championship draw:

Top Half

Ronnie O'Sullivan (1) v Barry Hawkins

Xiao Guodong (16) v David Gilbert

Ding Junhui (8) v Robert Milkins

Shaun Murphy (9) v Zhao Xintong

Mark Selby (5) v Jack Lisowski

Ali Carter (12) v Ryan Day

Si Jiahui (13) v Wu Yize

Mark Allen (4) v Jackson Page

Bottom Half

Judd Trump (3) v Neil Robertson

John Higgins (14) v He Guoqiang

Zhang Anda (11) v Lei Peifan

Mark Williams (6) v Stuart Bingham

Luca Brecel (7) v Jak Jones

Gary Wilson (10) v Michael Holt

Chris Wakelin (15) v Matthew Selt

Kyren Wilson (2) v Stephen Maguire

For full details on the 2024 UK Championship, including the draw, results, prize money breakdown, format and how to watch, please visit our tournament information centre here.