Stephen Hendry
Alex Higgins
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Stephen Hendry leads 3 of 3 categories. Our all-time ranking places Stephen Hendry at #2 and Alex Higgins at #11.
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The case for Stephen Hendry
The most dominant player of snooker's modern peak and the man who redefined how fast a frame should be won. Hendry took the world title in 1990 at 21 years and 106 days, still the youngest champion, and added six more (1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1999), including five in a row from 1992 to 1996 — a run no one else has approached in the Crucible era. He finished with 36 ranking titles, five UK Championships, six Masters and 18 Triple Crown titles, and held the world number one ranking for eight consecutive seasons from 1990 to 1998. He retired in 2012 with 775 career centuries and 11 official maximums, the last of them made at the Crucible in his final World Championship appearance. His contribution was tactical as much as statistical: by attacking long reds that his contemporaries played safe on, he forced the entire tour to raise its scoring rate.
The case for Alex Higgins
The player whose record understates his importance more than anyone's. Higgins won the world title in 1972 at 22, then the youngest champion, having qualified from the amateur ranks in his first professional season, and won it again a decade later in 1982, when he called his wife and daughter to the table in tears — the most replayed image in the sport. He reached four world finals, won the UK Championship in 1983 and the Masters in 1978 and 1981, giving him five Triple Crown titles. The 69 break he made against Jimmy White from a hopeless position in the 1982 semi-final is still cited as the finest clearance under pressure ever played. Nicknamed Hurricane for his speed, he brought crowds and controversy in equal measure and made snooker a spectacle rather than a pastime, at enormous personal cost. He died in 2010 at 61.