Let’s examine the impact of the Players Championship, which had a substantial prize fund last week, on the several snooker rankings lists.
In the Sunday final in Telford, Mark Allen defeated Zhang Anda in a hard-fought 10-8 victory to take home the £125,000 champion’s cheque.
For the Northern Irishman, who also won the Snooker Shoot Out and the invitation-only Champion of Champions at the end of 2023, it was his third victory of the season.
Top 16
After winning at the Telford International Centre, Allen holds the third-place spot in the world according to the official two-year snooker rankings.
Still, the Pistol has gotten a lot closer to the two players who are ahead of him, Judd Trump and Ronnie O’Sullivan.
Between now and the end of the current campaign, the latter two will have a lot of points to defend, which puts Allen in a strong position to contend for the top spot in the world.
In fact, Allen is well ahead of the pack with a buffer of almost £200,000 according to the preliminary end-of-season snooker rankings.
There will be a lot of action before the semester ends because there are a number of high-profile events coming up, such as the World Open, the Tour Championship, and the blue-riband World Championship.
When you’re back on the official list, you’re essentially back where you were following the Players Championship.
World champion Luca Brecel continues to lead Mark Selby, Ali Carter, Mark Williams, and Shaun Murphy in fourth place.
The top eight players will be invited to the first-ever Riyadh Season World Masters of Snooker, which will take place in Saudi Arabia the following week.
John Higgins and Ding Junhui round out the top ten, with Kyren Wilson coming in last after a poor season that has seen him fall down the rankings repeatedly.
Zhang Anda, a much-improved Chinese competitor, reached a career-high of number 12 in the world thanks to his outstanding performance to get to the Players Championship final.
The other sixteen finalists include Tom Ford, Neil Robertson, Robert Milkins, and Gary Wilson.
The likes of Ryan Day, Zhou Yuelong, Hossein Vafaei, Barry Hawkins, and Jack Lisowski are behind them.
Since Lisowski was unable to earn a spot in the World Open, he will almost certainly need to participate in this year’s World Championship qualifying.
The others will be among those aiming for a robust next month to secure an automatic spot at the Crucible Theatre and crack into the top 16.
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