World snooker ranking

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Judd Trump - currently number 1 in the official snooker world rankings

The official snooker world ranking is a listing of professional snooker players by the World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association according to their success in the tournaments of the Main Tour . Each issue shows the results of the players in the world ranking tournaments over the past 24 months.

After each valuation tournament, the result achieved there will be included and results that are older than two years will be deducted. The scores depend on both the round reached and the status of the tournament. Since the 2014/15 season , the number of points corresponds to the prize money won. Victory prizes at invitation tournaments count just as little for the world rankings as special prizes for Century or Maximum Breaks . Amateur players who win prize money in open tournaments will not be included on the list.

The world rankings serve as the basis for the seeding list in the following tournaments during the season. In addition, the players who belong to the top 64 of the list at the end of a season automatically retain professional status and thus the right to start the Main Tour of the following season.

History and background

Determination of the ranking

The world rankings were introduced in the 1976/77 season. Initially, it only took into account the results of the snooker world championship , from 1982 further world ranking tournaments were established. Over time, a point system developed according to which the tournaments were rated according to their importance. A victory in the World Championship brought twice as many points as in the UK Championship as the second most important tournament, other tournaments brought correspondingly fewer points. For the loser of the final of a tournament as well as for the players who had been eliminated in the previous rounds, there were correspondingly fewer points.

Once in the 2006/07 and 2007/08 seasons, the Grand Prix was played with preliminary round groups of 6 participants each. These had to play “everyone against everyone” in a shortened game. The first two of the group reached the round of 16, places 3 to 6 were eliminated. In this competition mode, the players in 3rd and 4th place in their group received more points for the world rankings than the players in 5th or 6th place. As part of this rule change, the status of the Grand Prix was raised to 1.25 times the number of points of the other tournaments; the winner received 6,250 points instead of 5,000 points. Since this system was highly controversial, it was abolished again in the 2008/09 season . After that, the Grand Prix, which was later renamed the World Open, was played again in the knockout system . Since then there have only been invitation tournaments, but no more ranked tournaments with group stages.

In the 1992/93 season experiments were carried out for the first time with so-called minor-ranking tournaments , with tournaments with lower ratings, for which there were only 10% of the normal number of points. Since they were not accepted by the players, the regulation was abolished again. Only with the introduction of the Players Tour Championship in 2010 was a series of small tournaments introduced again, which earned significantly fewer points. However, 40% of the points in other tournaments were awarded and a separate tournament mode and other regulations increased the attractiveness of the tournaments.

Since the 2014/15 season , the tournaments are no longer rated according to a fixed point system, but according to the amount of prize money that can be won at the respective tournament. The number of points in the world ranking list corresponds to the prize money in British pounds that the player has won in all world ranking tournaments over the past 24 months.

Update of the ranking

In contrast to other sports (such as tennis ), the official snooker world ranking was a fixed ranking until the 2009/10 season , which was only updated after the end of the season. For this, the points earned during the last two seasons were added up.

In addition to the official world rankings, according to which the players were set for the tournaments up to and including the 2009/10 season, another provisional world ranking was kept, which was updated after each ranking tournament. This list contained the points of the previous season as well as the results of the completed tournaments in the current season. The previous season (the pre-pre-season), which counted in the official ranking, was omitted from the provisional ranking. Since the season ended with the World Cup and two full seasons were then counted for the provisional ranking, it matched the official ranking at this point in time. Since the current results were taken into greater account in the Provisional Ranking, it usually reflected the current skill level of a player better than the official ranking list.

Since the 2010/11 season , the world rankings have been updated after each tournament in which there are ranking points. Several times per season - at the so-called cut-off points - this results in a new seeding list for the following tournaments. On the one hand, this change in the set of rules better reflects the current level of performance of the players and also prevents the same players from clashing again and again. The ranking continues to cover a period of 24 months. In this way, good performance should continue to be rewarded.

Meaning of the world rankings

The world snooker rankings began in 1977 with the list of 16 players who had reached the round of 16 at the World Cup. The increase in world ranking tournaments and the rules of valuation meant that the list kept growing and at times comprised several hundred positions. The world rankings were not only a list of the best for snooker players, they were also used to determine qualifications for tournaments and to determine the schedule for games. For example, the top players have automatically qualified for the traditional invitation tournament, the Masters , since the 1970s. According to a certain system, the tournament games are scheduled so that the best players according to the ranking list can only meet in the last rounds. However, the seeding lists are often modified, for example by placing the defending champion in position one and only then the remaining players follow according to the world ranking position. Or by automatically placing the world champion as number 2, provided that he is placed lower than position 2.

Over time, the world rankings also became decisive for qualification. The top 16 were always automatically placed for the main tournament, while the other players first had to qualify in order to be able to participate in the tournament round. There was a special regulation for the world champion: It was always set automatically. If he did not come out of the top 16, the number 16 had to qualify for the tournaments of the Main Tour next season. This case occurred three times: 1979 with Terry Griffiths , 2005 with Shaun Murphy, and 2013 with Ronnie O'Sullivan .

The top 16 was further downgraded. The players from positions 17 to 32 only had to play one qualifying round, from positions 33 to 48 two qualifying games were necessary and so on. Staying in a certain section of the world ranking was of particular importance for the players, in particular a place in the top 16 meant that you automatically got world ranking points in every tournament, because they were always available when participating in the main tournament, but not in the Qualification. Only in the course of the reform of the tournament system in the 2010s was this staggering abolished more and more. Most tournaments start with a round in which all players from the top 128 who have registered for the respective tournament compete. If necessary, they are supplemented by amateurs who are determined via a separate qualification or Q-School participation. If these amateurs reach rounds for which there are world ranking points, these will not be counted.

Even without staggering the world rankings, the number of participants in the professional tournaments is limited. That is why the world ranking includes a fixed number of players. These officially have professional status and are eligible to participate in the tournaments of the Main Tour. This right to participate is valid for the entire season. After the end of the season, i.e. after the final of the snooker world championship each year, a final world ranking list is drawn up. Before the introduction of the provisional ranking lists, there were only these annual ranking lists. Only those who were among the top 64 were automatically eligible to start the next season in the professional tournaments. Other players were able to qualify for example via the Challenge Tour or the Pontin's International Open Series and were then included in the world rankings in the following season. The qualification options were greatly expanded in the 2010s and include title wins, successes at the Players Tour Championship and the Q-School, or nominations from associations. Until 2012, players only qualified for one year at a time, since then they have been eligible to start for the next two consecutive seasons.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Latest World Rankings ( English ) Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on April 14, 2011. Retrieved February 19, 2013.
  2. ↑ Rolf Kalb : New ranking list is coming. In: Yahoo ! Eurosport . July 8, 2010, archived from the original on July 13, 2012 ; Retrieved February 19, 2013 .