Rockets Ronnie O'Sullivan is the first player in world snooker history to win 37 ranking titles, and the only golfer to win six Grand Slams and 20 triple-tournament titles. In terms of the number of championships won in the ranking competition, O'Sullivan successfully set a record. After creating a single season of five Asians last season, O'Sullivan also successfully refreshed his number of runners-up in the ranking tournament to 21, and he also successfully equald Hendry with such a statistical performance. Higgins, after losing 8-9 to Allen and missing the Northern Ireland Open, also refreshed the number of runners-up in the ranking tournament to 21. It also means that Higgins will compete with O'Sullivan for the second-place king.
O'Sullivan is expected to achieve a first place in the championship and runner-up doubles
Although O'Sullivan still lags behind Steve Davis in terms of overall championship winnings, his ranking championship number and runner-up number are already the first place in history, although the current position of runner-up is shared with Hendry and Higgins. But judging by O'Sullivan's efficiency in winning the runner-up last season, the six-time world champion still has a very good chance of winning the first double double in the snooker rankings. While O'Sullivan's ranking titles may not always be able to stay number one in the future, if he can continue to improve his runner-up numbers a bit, it can also make his results more legendary. It's naturally good to get the most ranking titles, but it's also admirable to get a few more runners-ups, after all, this will be an unprecedented record.
Higgins is expected to be the runner-up king of the rankings
On the road to runner-up, Higgins can be described as tireless. He not only holds four World Championship runners-ups, but also creates many embarrassing moments for winning runners-up. But on the data of the runners-up in the rankings, he is the same as Hendry and O'Sullivan. Since Hendry is no longer able to compete for runner-up, O'Sullivan and Higgins will be fighting fiercely on the way to runner-up. After all, the king of the ranking runners-up still needs to find a new home, and Higgins and O'Sullivan are undoubtedly the best choices. Higgins, as the runner-up player, has frequently won runners-up in competitions in recent years, but O'Sullivan directly surpassed Higgins' performance after completing five asians in a single season last season. However, Higgins managed to catch up at the Northern Ireland Open. Judging by Higgins' current athletic performance, he still has the strength to reach the final and get runner-up. So it wasn't easy for O'Sullivan to enjoy the title of King of the Ranking Runners-up.
Trump and Murphy are also potential contenders
In terms of ranking runners-up, except for O'Sullivan, Higgins and Hendry, all of whom are 21. Jimmy White also finished runners in 14 rankings, Murphy and Mark Williams and Steve Davis all finished 13 runners-up in rankings, Robertson finished 12 runners-up in rankings, Trump 11 runners-up in rankings, Dahdi 11 runners-up in rankings and Selby 10 runners-up in rankings. Objectively speaking, Trump and Murphy have become potential contenders for the runner-up king. Although there is still an objective gap between them and O'Sullivan, Higgins and Hendry, it is entirely possible that they will succeed in surpassing them in the future to get more runners-up in the rankings. Especially for a young and mentally poor player like Trump, he has every chance to surpass the best trio to become the future runner-up king. However, now he and Murphy still have to wait, after all, O'Sullivan and Higgins have begun to compete for the second place in the ranking competition, let's wait and see.