Selby To Remain World Number One

Despite his defeat to Scotland’s Anthony McGill at the 2015 Betfred World Championship in Sheffield, Mark Selby is now guaranteed to remain as snooker’s number one ranked player at the end of the season following the conclusion of the quarter-finals.

After Mark’s exit from the tournament last Monday, both Neil Robertson and Ding Junhui were still in with a chance of overtaking his ranking total of £760,382 at the end of the tournament.

With their defeats yesterday however to Barry Hawkins and Judd Trump respectively, neither can now catch Selby, who is therefore now assured of finishing the season as world number one.

Impressively, it will be the fourth season in a row that Mark will have finished in top spot, an achievement bettered only by three of snooker’s all-time greats in Ray Reardon, Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry.

In terms of other ranking changes that may still happen between now and the end of the season, as it stands the four players remaining in the semi-finals of the Betfred World Championship are in line to finish between 5th and 9th, with those who are able to reach the final and ultimately win the title set to climb higher still.

With all four players being English and one of them certain to overtake current second placed Englishman Ronnie O’Sullivan, there is also a place in snooker’s World Cup at stake, with the winner of the tournament effectively guaranteed to take the second spot alongside Mark Selby.