Ronnie O’Sullivan is the new official world number one having taken over from Mark Selby at the end of the Cazoo Tour Championship.
O’Sullivan was knocked out in the semi-finals in Llandudno but with Selby not in the field – and losing the points he gained from the same event in 2020 – he hands top spot to the Rocket on the official two-year list. O’Sullivan takes the number one spot for the fifth time in his career and first time since 2019.
The seeding order for the top 16 at the Betfred World Championship is now confirmed. Selby remains top seed as defending champion, with O’Sullivan seeded second. The draw for the Crucible is:
Mark Selby (1) v Qualifier
Yan Bingtao (16) v Qualifier
Barry Hawkins (9) v Qualifier
Mark Williams (8) v Qualifier
Kyren Wilson (5) v Qualifier
Stuart Bingham (12) v Qualifier
Anthony McGill (13) v Qualifier
Judd Trump (4) v Qualifier
Neil Robertson (3) v Qualifier
Jack Lisowski (14) v Qualifier
Luca Brecel (11) v Qualifier
John Higgins (6) v Qualifier
Zhao Xintong (7) v Qualifier
Shaun Murphy (10) v Qualifier
Mark Allen (15) v Qualifier
Ronnie O’Sullivan (2) v Qualifier
The schedule of matches will be announced soon. After the qualifiers are completed on April 13th, the random draw for the last 32 will take place at 11am on Thursday April 14th, available to watch on Betfred TV and Facebook.
Neil Robertson won the Cazoo Tour Championship, his fourth title of the season, and the £150,000 top prize lifts him above Judd Trump to third in the rankings. He also goes top of the one-year ranking list having earned £411,000 from ranking events alone this season. And Robertson finishes the 2021/22 Cazoo Series top of that list having won two of the three events.
John Higgins took the £60,000 runner-up prize and he remains sixth on the two year list, while Luca Brecel reached the semi-finals and jumps from 15th to 11th.
The Betfred World Championship qualifiers are crucial in deciding which players keep their tour cards for next season – follow that race here.