Ray Reardon
Neil Robertson
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Ray Reardon leads 3 of 4 categories. Our all-time ranking places Ray Reardon at #6 and Neil Robertson at #10.
The case for Ray Reardon
The dominant figure of snooker's television revival and the bridge between the amateur game and the professional boom. A former coal miner and policeman, Reardon turned professional in 1967 and won six world titles in nine years (1970, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1978), reaching seven finals in all. He became the first official world number one when the ranking system was introduced in 1976, and his 1978 title made him world champion at 45, the oldest until Ronnie O'Sullivan in 2022. He also won the Masters in 1976, taking his Triple Crown tally to seven. Because ranking events barely existed in his prime — the World Championship was the only one until 1982 — his single ranking title badly understates his record. Nicknamed Dracula for his widow's peak and his habit of finishing opponents off slowly, he later coached O'Sullivan through his 2004 world title.
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.