Top seeds for World Championship snooker confirmed as huge names miss out

The top 16 seeds have now been confirmed for the 2024 World Snooker Championship - with reigning champion Luca Brecel leading the way.

A total of 32 players compete in the tournament at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, with only 16 players qualifying automatically.

The seeding for the World Championship is different to other tournaments, with the World Snooker Tour using a system based on results in specific ranking tournaments over the previous season. The reigning champion is named as the number one seed.

Brecel would have been comfortably outside the top 16 without his World Championship performance, given his challenging season to date, but has begun to find form ahead of the Crucible and will be hoping to defend his crown.

Ronnie O'Sullivan, meanwhile, is the number two seed, while Judd Trump is in third. Mark Allen and Mark Selby make up the top five.

But there are some big names that will miss out on being allocated an automatic spot at the World Championship.

2010 champion Neil Robertson went into last week's World Open in China knowing he would need to win the tournament to get back into the top 16.

However, he lost a thrilling final frame decider to home favourite Ding Junhui - who subsequently needed a police escort out of the arena - in the semi-finals.

Robertson will therefore need to qualify for the Crucible for the first time since 2006.

He will be joined by the likes of 2023 Crucible semi-finalist Si Jiahui, Stephen Maguire, Hossein Vafaei and Jack Lisowski in attempting to make it to Sheffield via the gruelling qualification format.

The Australian, though, will only enter at the final stage of four best-of-19 frame rounds.

Jimmy White is also set to enter the qualifiers, while seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry still holds an invitational tour card though it is unclear whether he will appear.

The order of the top 16 can change depending on the results of the Tour Championship next week.

The full top 16 is as follows:

• Luca Brecel (defending champion)
• Ronnie O'Sullivan

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• Judd Trump
• Mark Allen
• Mark Selby
• Shaun Murphy
• Ding Junhui
• Ali Carter
• Mark Williams
  

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• Zhang Anda
• Gary Wilson
• Kyren Wilson
• John Higgins
• Tom Ford
• Barry Hawkins
• Robert Milkins