John Higgins
Ding Junhui
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Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
John Higgins leads 5 of 5 categories. Our all-time ranking places John Higgins at #5 and Ding Junhui at #12.
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The case for John Higgins
The finest all-round technician of the modern era and the most durable competitor of a remarkable generation. Higgins won world titles in 1998, 2007, 2009 and 2011 and reached eight world finals in total, including three consecutive losing finals in 2017, 2018 and 2019, two of them decided in the final frame. He has more than 30 ranking titles, three UK Championships, two Masters and nine Triple Crown titles, and has compiled more than 900 career centuries. What sets him apart is completeness: he is regarded across the tour as the best safety player of his generation while also being capable of clearing from behind under maximum pressure, most famously in the deciding frames of his later Crucible finals. Turning professional in 1992 alongside Ronnie O'Sullivan and Mark Williams, he was still winning ranking events past 45 and still competing at the top of the tour in his fifties.
The case for Ding Junhui
The most successful Asian player in the sport's history and the single figure most responsible for its expansion into China. Ding won the 2005 China Open in Beijing at 18, beating Stephen Hendry 9-5 in front of an enormous home audience, and has since taken more than 14 ranking titles, more than any other player from Asia. His Triple Crown record stands at four: three UK Championships (2005, 2009, 2019) and the 2011 Masters. In 2013-14 he won five ranking events in a single season, equalling Hendry's record for a campaign. He reached the 2016 world final, the first Asian player to do so, losing 18-14 to Mark Selby, and has passed 500 career centuries. The absence of a world title is the gap in his case, but the academies, sponsorships and junior pathways that produced Zhao Xintong's 2025 championship were built on the interest Ding created twenty years earlier.