Ranking Records: Number One

Ranking Records: World Number One

In sports such as tennis and golf, one statistic maintained is that of the total weeks spent ranked as world number one by a player.

In snooker this is not something that has traditionally been measured, because of course until as recently as 2010 the rankings were updated on only an annual basis.

With the rankings now being updated after each event however, I will now be keeping a track of both changes at the top of the rankings and an all-time league table of total weeks spent at top spot.

For ease, where a player has been ranked at number one for more or less than an exact week, I have rounded up their total.

Number One Players (updated 24/10/2016):

Name From To Weeks
Ray Reardon 3 May 1975 20 April 1981 312
Cliff Thorburn
21 April 1981 16 May 1982
56
Ray Reardon 17 May 1982
2 May 1983
50
Steve Davis
3 May 1983 29 April 1990 365
Stephen Hendry
30 April 1990 4 May 1998
418
John Higgins
5 May 1998 1 May 2000
104
Mark Williams
2 May 2000
6 May 2002
105
Ronnie O’Sullivan
7 May 2002
5 May 2003
52
Mark Williams
6 May 2003
3 May 2004
52
Ronnie O’Sullivan
4 May 2004
1 May 2006
104
Stephen Hendry
2 May 2006
7 May 2007 53
John Higgins
8 May 2007
5 May 2008
52
Ronnie O’Sullivan
6 May 2008 3 May 2010 104
John Higgins
4 May 2010
26 September 2010
21
Neil Robertson
27 September 2010
12 December 2010
11
John Higgins
13 December 2010
2 May 2011
20
Mark Williams
3 May 2011
11 September 2011
19
Mark Selby
12 September 2011
4 November 2012
60
Judd Trump
5 November 2012
9 December 2012
5
Mark Selby
10 December 2012
17 February 2013
10
Judd Trump 18 February 2013
31 March 2013
6
Mark Selby
1 April 2013
9 June 2013 10
Neil Robertson
10 June 2013
5 May 2014
47
Mark Selby
6 May 2014
6 July 2014
9
Neil Robertson 7 July 2014
10 August 2014 5
Mark Selby
11 August 2014
7 December 2014 17
Ding Junhui
 8 December 2014
14 December 2014
1
Neil Robertson
15 December 2014
25 January 2015 6
Ding Junhui
26 January 2015
8 February 2015 2
Mark Selby
9 February 2015
89*

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Total Weeks Spent As World Number One (updated 24/10/2016):

Name Weeks
Stephen Hendry
471
Steve Davis
365
Ray Reardon 362
Ronnie O’Sullivan
260
John Higgins
197
Mark Selby
195*
Mark Williams
176
Neil Robertson
69
Cliff Thorburn
56
Judd Trump
11
Ding Junhui
3