Mark Williams
Neil Robertson
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Mark Williams leads 4 of 5 categories. Our all-time ranking places Mark Williams at #8 and Neil Robertson at #10.
The case for Mark Williams
The purest long potter of the modern game and the owner of its most remarkable second act. Williams won world titles in 2000 and 2003, disappeared from contention for well over a decade, then won again in 2018 at the age of 43 — the longest gap between first and last world title in the sport's history, and a result he had considered so unlikely that he had promised to attend the winner's press conference naked, and did. He has more than 25 ranking titles, two UK Championships (1999, 2002), two Masters (1998, 2003), seven Triple Crown titles and over 600 career centuries. In 2025, at 50, he reached the world final again, becoming the oldest Crucible finalist before losing 18-12 to Zhao Xintong. Left-handed, with an unusually relaxed technique and the best cut-back potting of his generation, he is the third member of the Class of 1992 alongside O'Sullivan and Higgins.
The case for Neil Robertson
The most successful player produced outside Britain and Ireland, and for a long stretch the only one. Robertson won the World Championship in 2010, becoming the first Australian champion and the only player from outside the British Isles to take the title between Cliff Thorburn in 1980 and Luca Brecel in 2023. He has more than 24 ranking titles and five Triple Crown titles, including three UK Championships (2013, 2015, 2020) and the 2012 Masters, and has compiled over 800 career centuries. In 2013-14 he became the first player in history to make 100 century breaks in a single season, finishing with 103, a benchmark that has since become the marker of an elite scoring campaign. Left-handed and technically orthodox, he built his career by moving to Britain as a teenager after failing to make an impact from Melbourne, and remains the proof that the tour's talent pipeline is not geographically fixed.