Ronald Antonio O'Sullivan is an English professional snooker player. Widely recognised as one of the most talented and accomplished players in snooker history, he has won the World Snooker Championship seven times, a modern-era record he holds jointly with Stephen Hendry. He has also won a record eight Masters titles and a record eight UK Championship titles for a total of 23 Triple Crown titles, the most achieved by any player. He holds the record for the most ranking titles, with 41, and has held the top ranking position multiple times.
The Welsh Open is a professional ranking snooker tournament that has been held annually since 1992. It replaced the Welsh Professional Championship, which ran annually from 1980 to 1991 and was open only to Welsh players. The Welsh Open is now the longest running ranking event after the World Championship and the UK Championship. Since the 2016–17 season, it has been one of four tournaments in the Home Nations Series, alongside the Northern Ireland Open, the Scottish Open, and the English Open. Since 2017, the winner of the event has received the Ray Reardon Trophy, named after the Welsh six-time world champion. Reardon himself presented the newly named trophy to 2017 winner Stuart Bingham.
The German Masters is a professional ranking snooker tournament held at the Tempodrom in Berlin, Germany since 2011, except for 2021, when it was held at Milton Keynes in England because of the COVID-19 pandemic. An earlier ranking event, the German Open, was held in Germany from 1995 to 1997. This was followed by an invitation event, called the German Masters, in 1998. The reigning champion is Judd Trump.
The Northern Ireland Open is a professional ranking snooker tournament held in Belfast as part of the four-event Home Nations Series. The players compete for the Alex Higgins Trophy, named for the late two-time world champion who was born and raised in Belfast. The inaugural edition of the tournament was held in 2016 and was won by Mark King.
Stuart Bingham is an English professional snooker player who is a former World Champion and Masters winner.
Judd Trump is an English professional snooker player who is a former world champion and the current world number one. Widely regarded as one of the sport's most talented players, he is currently in fourth place on the list of all-time ranking event winners, having won 29 ranking titles. He has also won four Triple Crown titles.
Alfred Burden is an English professional snooker player from London.
The Snooker Shoot Out is a professional snooker tournament played under a variation of the standard rules. Each match consists of one frame, played over a maximum of 10 minutes, with a shot clock in effect. First staged in 1990 as the Shoot-Out, the event was revived in 2011 and renamed the Snooker Shoot Out. Held from 2011 to 2016 as a non-ranking event with 64 competitors, it became a ranking event in 2017 for an expanded field of 128 players.
Kyren James Wilson is an English professional snooker player from Kettering. He has won eight ranking titles and is the reigning world champion.
Scott Donaldson is a Scottish professional snooker player.
Zhao Xintong is a Chinese snooker player. Xintong won the 2021 UK Championship, but received a 20-month ban from the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association after committing offences relating to betting on snooker in 2023. This ban expired on 1 September 2024.
The English Open is a professional ranking snooker tournament, one of the four events of the Home Nations Series. The winner is awarded the Steve Davis Trophy, named in honour of the English six-time world champion. The reigning champion is Neil Robertson.
The 2020 European Masters was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place from 22 to 26 January 2020 in Dornbirn, Austria. Organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), it was the ninth ranking event of the 2019–20 season, following the 2019 UK Championship, and preceding the 2020 German Masters. It was the twenty-first edition of the European Masters first held in 1989. The event was sponsored by betting company BetVictor.
The 2020 German Masters was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place from 29 January to 2 February 2020 in the Tempodrom in Berlin, Germany. The tournament was the tenth ranking event of the 2019–2020 snooker season. It was the 14th edition of the German Masters, first held in 1995 as the 1995 German Open. The event featured a prize fund of £400,000 with £80,000 being given to the winner.
The 2020 Gibraltar Open was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 13 to 15 March 2020 at the Europa Point Sports Complex in Gibraltar with qualifying rounds occurring on 11 and 12 March 2020. It was the fifteenth ranking event of the 2019–20 snooker season, and the final tournament in the European Series, following the German Masters, European Masters and Snooker Shoot Out. The event was the fifth Gibraltar Open tournament, first held in 2015. The event was organized by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association and sponsored by BetVictor.
The sport of professional snooker has had a world ranking system in place since 1976. Certain tournaments were given ranking status, with the results at those events contributing to a player's world ranking. The events that made up the 1976–77 snooker season were the first to use ranking points, awarding points from earlier seasons. Originally, the world rankings were decided based only on results in the World Snooker Championship, but other events were later added. The system used for the 2020–21 snooker season was first used in the 2010–11 season, where players were awarded ranking points based entirely on prize money won from these events. The rankings are based on the prior two seasons, with ten revisions after specific tournaments throughout the season. These revisions are used as official rankings, with points awarded in the current season overwriting those from two years prior.
The BetVictor European Series is a snooker tournament series established in 2019. It was expanded from four tournaments in the 2019–20 season to six tournaments in the 2020–21 season and then to eight tournaments for the 2021–22 season, the 2022–23 season and the 2023–24 season. The player who wins the most cumulative prize money in European Series events each season receives a bonus prize of £150,000. Judd Trump won the bonus prize in the first two and the fifth seasons, while John Higgins took the bonus in the third season, and Robert Milkins claimed it in the fourth.
The 2021 Gibraltar Open was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 1 to 7 March 2021 at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, England. It was the twelfth ranking event of the 2020–21 snooker season, and the sixth and final event in the BetVictor European Series.
Snooker world rankings 2021/2022: The professional world rankings for all the professional snooker players, who qualified for the 2021–22 season, are listed below. The rankings work as a two-year rolling list. The points for each tournament two years ago are removed when the corresponding tournament during the current season finishes. The following table contains the rankings which were used to determine the seedings for certain tournaments. Note that the list given below are just those rankings that are used for seeding tournaments. Other rankings are produced after each ranking event which are not noted here.
The 2022 Gibraltar Open was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 24 to 26 March 2022 at the Europa Point Sports Complex. The 14th ranking event of the 2021–22 snooker season, it followed the Turkish Masters and preceded the Tour Championship. It was the seventh -- and currently final -- edition of the Gibraltar Open, first held in 2015, and the eighth and final event of the 2021–22 European Series.
Robert Milkins (ENG)
