Ding Junhui holds on as World Snooker Championship Crucible seeds confirmed
The 16 players who will be main draw seeds at the Crucible Theatre for the 2026 World Snooker Championship are now known.
A total of 144 competitors are set to take part in the 2026 World Snooker Championship, although only 32 of these will feature in front of the television cameras and under the bright lights of the Crucible between April 18-May 4.
The world’s top 16 ranked stars all go straight through to round one proper whilst the remaining 128 entrants must go to the qualifying rounds held at the English Institute of Sport elsewhere in Sheffield shortly before.
Consisting of four rounds - with players entering at different stages depending on their world ranking positions - there will be a scramble for the 16 golden tickets on offer at qualifying. These qualifiers will then be randomly drawn against the top 16 seeds for round one at the Crucible.
Who will be the seed players at the Crucible?
The top 16 players from the world ranking list following the conclusion of the professional season’s penultimate event - the 2026 Tour Championship - will be this year’s Crucible seeds.
Going into the Tour Championship, 15 of the 16 seeds were already confirmed. Newly-minted World Open champion Thepchaiya Un-Nooh could have broken into the world’s elite bracket with a title triumph at the Manchester Central - as a consequence, pushing former world finalist Ding Junhui out of the 16 and into the qualifying gauntlet.
However, the Thai star was defeated by Barry Hawkins 10-8 in the opening round on Tuesday, meaning that Ding manages to cling on to his status, while Un-Nooh will need to navigate two qualifying rounds at the EIOS to book a Crucible return.
Whilst round one of the 2026 World Snooker Championship sees the seeds randomly drawn against the qualifiers, the seed players’ positions in the draw are fixed, with the number one seed at the top of the draw and the number two seed at the bottom etc.
Heading into Manchester, these top four seeds were also confirmed, regardless of the results at the Tour Championship.
As the reigning and defending champion, Zhao Xintong will be the top seed, and as per tradition will play and complete his first round match on the opening Saturday at the Crucible.
World number one Judd Trump - who has a very good chance of finishing the season at the top of the standings - is the number two seed. Also in the bottom half of the draw along with Trump is world number two Kyren Wilson, the champion from two years ago.
Winner of the Saudi Arabia Masters in August, Neil Robertson is the number four seed, and will be in the top half with Zhao.
At the time of writing, three further seed positions have been established for the Crucible, with Mark Allen being the number 14 seed (could meet Wilson in last 16), Si Jiahui the number 15 seed (could meet Trump in the last 16) and Ding the number 16 seed (could meet Zhao in the last 16).
Seed positions 5 to 13 will be confirmed during the Tour Championship as further results come in, although John Higgins, Mark Williams, Mark Selby, Shaun Murphy, Xiao Guodong, Wu Yize, Barry Hawkins, Ronnie O'Sullivan, and Chris Wakelin are all set to feature at the Crucible - we just don’t know, as yet, where they will be placed in the draw bracket.
O'Sullivan - who will be going for a modern-day record eighth world snooker title - will be either the number 12 or 13 seed.