Stephen Hendry
Judd Trump
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Stephen Hendry leads 3 of 4 categories. Our all-time ranking places Stephen Hendry at #2 and Judd Trump at #9.
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 Judd Trump
The most prolific scorer of the post-Hendry generation and the player who normalised attacking snooker from impossible angles. Trump won the world title in 2019, beating John Higgins 18-9 in a final containing a record seven century breaks from the champion, and reached two other finals, in 2011 and 2022. He has passed 30 ranking titles, a total exceeded by only a handful of players in history, and became the second man after Ronnie O'Sullivan to reach 1,000 career centuries. In 2019-20 he became the second player to make 100 centuries in a single season. His Triple Crown haul includes the 2011 UK Championship and the Masters in 2019 and 2023. Trump's signature is shot selection that other professionals would refuse: pots from the cushion, deep screw shots across the table, and a willingness to attack from safety positions, married to a positional game that has grown steadily more disciplined.