Worlds Best Snooker Players- You Must Know

Snooker is one of the most commonly played table games in the world. And there are some best snooker players who are just unstoppable. The popularity of Snooker in the British era was very much at its peak. 

There have been different ranking systems in professional Snooker since 1975. There were many players who played Snooker for many years, but only some of them were able to place them into the rankings. The ranking system is a bit difficult to understand, but we will try to explain it to you in a very straightforward way. 

In this article, we will be discussing the top snooker players around the world. 

7 Best Snooker Players In The World

The snooker rankings are decided according to a particular period. In some tournaments, it also depends on the geographical area. But in this list, we have merged all the ranking into one. So there might be a slight variation in the official data and our list. 

Ronnie O’Sullivan

Ronald Antonio O’Sullivan was born on 5 December 1975. Ronnie is his stage name given by his father. He is an English professional snooker player. He comes from the area of Essex in England. Sullivan began playing Snooker at the age of seven andwas one of the best players in his age group as he won his first tournament at the early age of nine. 

Ronnie played in an attacking stance in his early career, but he started playing in a balanced manner after some years. His attacking perspective and attitude has made him the rocket of snooker. His best play was when Sullivan finished a nine frame match in just minutes. 

He is not just a professional snooker player; sullivan is also an author cum writer as he has written three books. His writing genre is crime fiction.   

At the age of ten, he hit the first-century break. After five years, he won the under 16 championships ( British) at the age of 16. 

He won several world championships like English Amateur Championship, IBSF world under Snooker, and junior pot back in his early career. The best world record on his name is that he won 74-76 qualifying matches. In the last three years, he won approximately thirty-five million euros as the winning prize.  

Stephen Hendry 

Hendry was the youngest champion in snooker history. Stephen was just fifteen when he won the championship. He was in the first position from 1990 to 1998 for eight years. Stephen was the first player in history who scored three maximum breaks in the world tournaments. 

In his career, he has won 36 titles on his own, and in the 1990s, Higgins also Won seven world championships. Stephen is a brilliant sportsperson and ranked at number two after Ronnie o Sullivan. He comes from Scotland, and he was the youngest Amateur in snooker history at only the age of 15. 

In the period of 1990s, hendry was the number one player in all around the world. He was the best player for a period of 8 years. Many people try to compare both Ronnie and Hendry. Hendry also plays in a very attacking way, but later on, he also started playing very balanced. 

Steve Davis    

Steve Davis is an English professional snooker player. He was born in an English family in the year of 22 august 1957. Although Davis retired in the year of 2016, he was a fantabulous player throughout his career. 

Steves’s father was also a great player, and this game was in his blood. His father wrote a book on how he played Snooker. We can see some of the glimpses of this book in his techniques also. In the period of 1980, his career was on a hike. Davis won several world champions with a massive margin of 16-6. 

If we talk about his awards and win the championship Steve won 9 ranking tournaments: Australian goldfield open, shanghai masters, welsh open, Uk championship, german masters, china open, and players championship final. If we talk about his non-ranking tournament, he won 5 games. 

The list will never stop if we discuss all his awards and winning the championship. He is also known as the first genuine millionaire of the sport. If you want to watch one of his matches, then you must watch his classical wipeout finish when he blew off the opponent by 10-0 frames. 

Alex Higgins

 Alexander Gordon Higgins is a professional snooker player from the northern Irish area. He was the most iconic name when it came to snooker games. His nickname was hurricane Higgins because he used to play very fast in the game.

At the age of 11, Higgins started playing professional Snooker and won various under 16 and under 21 tournaments in his early career.

Alex has several records on his name as the world championship 1972 and 1982. He was the runner-up in 1976 and 1980. His highest break in a single game was 142 points. He won one ranking tournament and 23 non-ranking tournaments. 

Higgins earned his name with his speedy playing style. He was known for his speed around the table. And during his tournaments, he used to drink alcohol and smoke. In total, he won seven million euros during his entire winnings. 

Due to his high smoking habit, higgins  fell seriously ill in 2010, and in the mid-year, he died of mouth cancer. Hurricane performed best in the Asian classic tournament and Grand Prix tournament. 

Mark Williams 

Mark James William is a welsh professional snooker player. He was born on 21 March 1975. He started playing Snooker at the age of 7. During his first championship, he realized that he wants to pursue his career as a professional snooker player. 

At the age of 18 years, he touched the milestone of the highest break of 147 points. His playing style was always very slow and defensive. Williams was very famous for long potting pots. He has completed 450 centuries in his entire career. During the period between 2000 and 2004, he was the number one player of Snooker. Willings’s nickname was the welsh potting machine, as he was the champion of long pots. 

Mark has won twenty-two ranking tournaments and two and six minor ranking tournaments. He won the world tournament champion of 2000,2003 and 2018. In his entire career, he won a total of 6 million euros from the matches. 

John Higgins 

John Higgins is a professional snooker player from Scotland. He was born on 18 May 1975. Higgins started playing Snooker at a very early age. At the age of nineteen, he won his first tournament, grand Prix. His nickname is the wizard of Wishaw and his current overall ranking is seven. 

the total winning amount by John till date is approx eight million euros. John won several articles throughout the years like European masters, English open, championship league, Uk championship, and shoot-out. In total, he won 30 ranking tournaments, three minor rankings, and 19 non-ranking and four world championships ( 1998, 2007, 2009, 2011 ) 

2010 was the deficient year for Higgins as Higgins and his manager were subjected to match-fixing allegations and got suspended. But he did not stop even after that when he resumed playing the game he again won several championships. 

Mark Selby

Mark Anthony Selby is a professional snooker player from England. Selby was born on 19 June 1983. He started playing Snooker at the very early age of nine years. He won the world snooker championship three times in 2014, 2016, and 2017. 

Mark Selby secured his win in 17 rankings, seven minor rankings, Eight non-ranking tournaments to date. He has been on number one for several times. His current order is number four. Selby also managed to hit the highest break of one four seven for three times.

Selby compiled 629 tournament centuries in his career and won a total amount of approx five million Euros.  

English open, Uk championship, welsh open, champion of champions are the best games played by him. His playing style is very slow as he is very patient and makes future calls before making a shot. Selby is also a great player in the pool and nine-ball pool. He won the WEPF World Eight Ball Championship with the lead of 11-7.

Final Words

This was the list of the best snooker players around the world. Throughout this article, you must have noticed that each player was very passionate about the game and started his career at a very young age. That shows the seriousness and hard work that one must put into this game. But before starting this hard work one must know how to play snooker so that your hard work can result in a better way.

Although I enjoyed writing about all seven of them. If you enjoyed reading this, please share your feedback and your favorite player in the comment section below.