Knowing who in the current tour is the best player to not win a title yet is a fascinating debate. I wrote a similar countdown more than three years ago and it is about time it requires an update.
Since I published that article in February 2017, many players who lived up to that billing have achieved their goal. In winning their inaugural title, they passed the baton to the next unfortunate person. Ryan Day, Luca Brecel, Michael Georgiou, Jimmy Robertson, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, Matt Selt, Yan Bingtao and most recently at the time of writing, Michael Holt.
Unfortunately, someone else has to have the unwanted title of the best player to have never won a ranking event yet. Just to be clear, I am only including players who are currently on tour. So the likes of Darren Morgan, Kirk Stevens, Gary Wilkinson, Joe Swail, Jamie Cope, John Virgo and Robin Hull will not be included.
5. Gary Wilson
Looking at the plethora of talent on the current tour, it’s intriguing how many have one ranking final to their name. Ben Woollaston, Tom Ford, Xiao Guodong and Lyu Haotian are the first names to mind. Gary Wilson is one of them, having reached the 2015 China Open, notably beating home favourite Ding Junhui 6-5 in a mammoth semi-final match. In the final, Mark Selby stampeded through Wilson as the 10-2 victor.
However, he started to slip down the rankings. But in the last two season, Wilson has improved leaps and bounds. He started to feature more regularly in the latter stages before the 2019 World Championship. It was that tournament where he made the best impression. After qualifying, he outfoxed Luca Brecel, Mark Selby and Ali Carter, showing fantastic bottle and having a fantastic knack for escaping snookers. Though he lost in the semi-finals to eventual champion Judd Trump 17-11, he jumped 20 places to No. 20 in the world and looks like a contender for winning a ranking title.
He’s validated his position this season by reaching two quarter-finals and one semi-final this season, excluding the 6Reds World Championship semi-finals. The Tyneside Terror is knocking on the door, losing 6-5 in the 2020 European Masters semi-finals to Zhou Yuelong. It will be interesting if he can keep his lofty position as he will be dropping a lot of points next season. Let’s top Wilson can take advantage of more favourable draws thanks to his ranking before the 2021 World Championship.
4. Mark Davis
Dark Mavis has been a snooker professional for a very long time. Despite the lack of silverware in the ranking department, he has done very well in non-ranking tournaments. Three 6Red World Championships titles, a 2013 General Cup victor and is the 2016 World Seniors champion.
Dark Mavis was considered a journeyman for the early part of his career. But it is till this decade where he started to rise up the rankings. He reached his first Triple Crown semi-final when he beat the likes of John Higgins and Matthew Stevens to reach the 2012 UK Championship semi-finals. After that, he made two Masters appearances, reached five further quarter-finals and the 2018 Snooker Shoot-Out semi-finals. Davis finally reached his first ranking final last season. There was almost nothing between him and Stuart Bingham in the 2018 English Open, but the turning point was when Davis feathered the white and declared a foul on himself at 5-4 up.
Even Bingham admitted after his 9-7 win that “if it wasn’t for him feathering that white, you’d be interviewing him“. It’s now just the question to how long has the 47-year-old got left on the professional tour? It is noted that the longevity of a snooker player’s life is much longer now, but only time will tell to see if his form declines as the years go on.
3. Zhou Yuelong
I cannot really pick on an obvious strength of Zhou Yuelong. He is a great all-round player and is very mature for a player of 22 years of age.
Zhou is one of the many young, Chinese players groomed for stardom. Zhou, or mistakenly called by Dennis Taylor, Ghou Yolonge, came into prominence by winning the 2015 World Cup at just 17 with fellow teenage sensation Yan Bingtao. Since then, he has risen up the rankings without any troubles, breaking into the Top 32 for the first time. After reach a couple of quarter-finals, he reached his first semi-finals in the 2017 European Masters. Then he, sort of, stalled for a year.
But the past year he has risen up his game. Winning his opening match against Mark Allen in the 2019 World Championships was just another start. Ignoring the cruel fact that he has scored zero frame in two ranking finals, he still reached his two ranking finals. It was simply unfortunate that Neil Robertson was just too ruthless in the European Masters and goodness knows how the coin would flip in the Snooker Shoot-Out.
It is inevitable that Zhou will win a ranking title, it’s the question of when. He has a very long and successful ahead of him. The signs are good. It is also reassuring that his compatriot Yan Bingtao won his first ranking title earlier this season. The next couple of seasons will be very big for Zhou.
2. Jack Lisowski
I was very surprised when Mark Selby once said that Jack Lisowski is second behind Ronnie O’Sullivan in talent. With so much natural arsenal, why has it taken so long for Lisowski for even reach the Top 16 in the first place? Let’s not forget, Jack’s been a professional since 2010. He was No. 54 in the world at the start of the 2017/2018 season!
Since then, he has rocketed up the rankings table. In the 2017/2018 season, he reached two quarter-finals and his first semi-final in a single season. After that, he has reached three ranking finals, one semi-final and four quarter-finals. We know that Lisowski is blessed with a quick, flamboyant and aggressive style. But he has shown that he can tough it out when it needs to. He was threatening in his third ranking final against Selby in the 2019 Scottish Open, but impatience got the better of him late into the match. His instinctive play is incredibly inconsistent at times.
My other concern with Lisowski is how he is like in big matches. Matches such as against Peter Lines (2018 Paul Hunter Classic), Ronnie O’Sullivan (2018 UK Championship) and Kyren Wilson (2020 Masters) spring to mind. O’Sullivan and Jimmy White questioned Lisowski’s mindset after losing six frames in a row at that Masters match. Jack Lisowski is a fantastic talent and will win something but he just needs a little extra more…
1. David Gilbert
Weirdly, there’s not much debate around who’s the best looking looking for their first ranking title. In fact, David Gilbert is arguably the player everyone wants to see win their first ranking title the most.
Gilbert is one of the many snooker players who showed a lot of promise but seemed to fail at the professional stage. A lot of people have already heard of his story so I’ll be brief. Gilbert thought of retiring from snooker and working a few times full-time at the family potato farm. He managed to reach his first final in 2015. After the tour became more busy and Gilbert start his association with SightRight, he accelerated into form.
Even though he has reached four ranking finals to date, it wasn’t those feats that caught the eyes of many. He beat Joe Perry, Mark Williams and Kyren Wilson to reach the 2019 World Championship semi-finals for the first time. Agonisingly, he lost 17-16 to a resurgent John Higgins despite being 7-12 ahead. His emotional interview afterwards won him many fans for his honesty and sincerity. It is an incredible turnaround for The Angry Farmer.
As Gilbert said, he still has one box to tick and its that ranking title. He has come close, with the 2018 World Open loss to Mark Williams being his closest opportunity. There was nothing Gilbert could’ve done against a formidable Mark Selby in the 2019 English Open. But it is a question of whether it is Gilbert’s bottle that is holding him back or if his opponents just turn up the heat against him? What players would Gilbert be able to beat in the final? With three finals in two seasons, we will have to wait and see!
