Wilson achieves career-high ranking after claiming world title glory at Crucible

The Kettering professional began the World Championship at 12th in the rankings, but moves up nine places after holding off a spirited recovery by Welsh qualifier Jones, after leading 7-0 and 17-11 before finally scrambling over the line in the sport’s biggest match.

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Wilson’s ranking title wins 2024 World Snooker Championship World rankings

Wilson, 32, earns £500,000 for his landmark win in Sheffield meaning he will start next season behind only Mark Allen and Judd Trump in the sport’s standings as he moves above last year’s world champion Luca Brecel and snooker GOAT Ronnie O’Sullivan, who needed to claim a record eighth title to extend his two-year stay at the summit.

Wilson lost 18-8 to O’Sullivan in the 2020 final, but returns four years later to secure his lifetime ambition with a sixth ranking title victory and his first in two years.

Wilson pays emotional tribute to family after World Championship glory

“I have dreamed of this since I was six years old,” Wilson told reporters. “To win it with all my family there was just how I imagined it. Jack fought and made it so hard for me, it was tough to hold it all together. In the last frame, I just kept potting balls and suddenly I had potted match ball and I was world champion. It means everything.

“I was gutted to lose the final to Ronnie in 2020 and if that had been my only final I would have been heart-broken. I remember being drained in the first session of that final. This time I felt great, and when I saw Jak I thought he might struggle, I knew that was the moment to kick on.

“From 7-0 I knew I just had to avoid losing a session heavily, and to keep making it hard for him.”

Jones failed to join Terry Griffiths (1979) and Shaun Murphy (2005) as the only qualifiers to go all the way to the world title, but has the consolation of a £200,000 runners-up cheque which sees him rise 30 places from 44th to start next season inside the top 16 as the new world No. 14.

‘Like a slow death!’ – Wilson sinks fluke as Jones watches on

Robert Milkins drops out of the top 16 after his 13-4 defeat to David Gilbert in the last 16, but four-time world champion John Higgins does enough to extend his 29-year run among the elite despite his 13-8 defeat to Wilson in the quarter-finals.

The 2024/25 season is due to begin on 10 June with the Championship League before the tour heads to China as O’Sullivan defends his Shanghai Masters title in July (15-21).