Neil Robertson has reagined a place among the top 16 of the official world rankings following his victory at the BetVictor English Open.
Robertson beat Wu Yize 9-7 in the final in Brentwood on Sunday night and the £100,000 top prize boosts him from 26th to 15th, and he's back into the top 16 having dropped out last March. That's at the expense of another of snooker's all-time greats as John Higgins drops out of the elite, slipping from 16th to 17th.
Higgins joined the top 16 at the end of the 1994/95 season and enjoyed a 29-year unbroken spell among that bracket, a record sequence covering 10,738 days. But the Scot now faces a battle to regain his place.
China's Wu reached the final of a ranking event for the first time in his career, earning £45,000 and he's up from 40th to 31st. India's Ishpreet Singh Chadha made his first ranking semi-final and he's up from 77th to 68th, while Chris Wakelin was the other last-four loser and he rises one spot to 23rd. Judd Trump remains world number one, leading Kyren Wilson by £499,700.
The list will now be used to determine seedings for the BetVictor Northern Ireland Open and International Championship.
Robertson is the early front-runner in the 2024/25 BetVictor Series rankings with £100,000, ahead of Wu on £45,000. The leading money winer across the four BetVictor Home Nations Series events this season will earn a £150,000 bonus. The next counting event is October's BetVictor Northern Ireland Open.
On the one-year ranking list, Robertson jumps from ninth to fourth, while Wu climbs from 24th to eighth. As usual, the top 32 will qualify for the World Grand Prix, then the top 16 will head to the Players Championship in Telford and the top 12 will progress to the Tour Championship in Manchester.
Australia's Robertson also earns a spot in the Champion of Champions in Bolton in November.
There are five counting events to go in the Race to the Masters and Robertson is now on target for a place at Alexandra Palace in January having climbed to 14th. Higgins is 16th but there are five players within £47,000 so it's all to play for over the coming tournaments.
Trump heads the 2024/25 century breaks tally with 19, ahead of Shaun Murphy on 18. The first player to reach 100 centuries this season will earn a £100,000 bonus.