Ranking event winner Milkins battling to keep pro status at World Championship qualifiers
Two-time ranking event champion Robert Milkins could be fighting to save his professional snooker career at the 2026 World Championship qualifiers in Sheffield.
A former winner of both the Gibraltar Open and Welsh Open titles, Milkins has been an ever-present on snooker’s top flight since 1995.
But heading into this year’s blue riband event - the final tournament of the 2025/26 campaign - Milkins is 68th on the end-of-season provisional world ranking list, and facing relegation from the World Snooker Tour.
The top 64 in the world rankings after the World Championship all retain their professional tour card for at least another season, but the 50-year-old is projected to miss the cut.
Another path to retaining his top tier stripes is through the one-year/seasonal list, where the top four players who don’t already have a tour card for next season get a fresh two-year pass. However, it means their ranking points are reset to zero and they must start at the bottom of the ladder.
On that list, Milkins is currently fifth - again, placed just the wrong side of the dividing line.
Mikins’ professional career progress and highlights
Milkins reached his maiden ranking event quarter-final at the 2002 UK Championship, and went one step further at the 2005 Irish Masters where he was pipped 9-8 by Matthew Stevens in the semi-finals.
He went on to reach a further five ranked semi-finals but lost each one, although he did make the final of the minor-ranked 2014 Ruhr Open on the European Tour, and was runner-up at the Snooker Shoot Out in 2011 - back when the tournament was invitational/non-ranked.
The Milkman's consistency on tour saw him break into the world's top 16 for the first time in the middle of the 2010s - scaling up to a high of number 12.
However, he began to slip down the standings and was staring demotion from the pro tour towards the start of this decade as he struggled for results.
But out of the blue, the Englishman got into his maiden ranking event final at the 2022 Gibraltar Open where he defeated Kyren Wilson, 4-2, to lift the trophy.
However, less than 12 months on and Milkins enjoyed the biggest day of his career, so far, as he got the better of Shaun Murphy 9-7in the final to win the 2023 Welsh Open in Llandudno.
The result also saw Milkins secure that season's European Series order of merit bonus prize, meaning victory pocketed him £230,000.
These triumphs pushed Milkins back into the world's elite ranking bracket, bringing with it entries into big invitational events, and seeding at the Crucible. But less than two years on from when he was the number 16 seed at the 2024 World Championship, Milkins needs to win three consecutive qualifying rounds this time out in order to put his name in the main draw.
Ten Crucible appearances are to Milkins’ name. He made his debut at the iconic venue in 2002.
How has Milkins fared this season, so far?
This season has been the continuation of some difficult times on the baize for Milkins. He has lost his opening match in seven of 13 ranking events, and didn’t get out of the opening group stage of the Championship League Ranking Event.
There was a high at the Xi'an Grand Prix in China in October, though, where he defeated reigning world champion Zhao Xintong in the last 64 before compiling four century breaks in the next round. His run was ended by Daniel Wells in the last 16 - his best return of the season.
Starting in the second qualifying round at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, Milkins will meet either Ken Doherty or amateur player Patrick Whelan in this year’s World Championship preliminaries.
Should he navigate that tie, Jackson Page awaits in the penultimate round, with possibly Pang Junxu standing in the way at the final hurdle.
Milkins surely has to win his opening match against either Doherty or Whelan to put himself in contention for the one-year avenue - defeat means he is almost certainly relegated.
If Milkins wins back-to-back games and gets into the final qualifying round, that would bank him at least £15,000, and that could very well thrust him into the top 64 - but both scenarios are dependent on results elsewhere.
Should the worst happen and he is relegated from the Tour, Milkins can immediately return to it through the UK Q School which takes place at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester in late May - although there are no guarantees there.
View the full, unofficial end-of-season provisional world ranking list on snooker.org here.