1987–88 snooker world rankings

The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), the governing body for professional snooker, first introduced a ranking system for professional players in 1976, with the aim of seeding players for the World Snooker Championship. The reigning champion would be automatically seeded first, the losing finalist from the previous year seeded second, and the other seedings based on the ranking list. Initially, the rankings were based on performances in the preceding three world championships.^[2] The list for the 1986–87 snooker season was the first to only take account of results over two seasons, and the rankings for 1987–88 were also based on results from the preceding two seasons.^[3][4] The snooker journalist Janice Hale wrote positively about the rankings being calculated across two seasons rather than three. She argued that, at a time when snooker was the most viewed televised sport in the UK, "New faces are now beginning to appear on television".^[5]

Steve Davis retained the top ranking for the fifth consecutive year, with Jimmy White second and Neal Foulds third.^[2][6] White, who won two ranking titles in the 1986–87 season, had been in fifth place the previous year, and Foulds, who won one ranking title in the latter season, moved up from 13th.^[7]

Discussing the rankings for 1987–88, the snooker journalist Terry Smith asserted that "Every player in the lower ranks has one immediate aim – a place in the top 16 ... that elite top group."^[8] Players in the top 16 were seeded into the last-32 round of the 1988 World Snooker Championship and received invitations to the 1988 Masters.^[4] John Parrott, Mike Hallett and Dean Reynolds moved into the top 16 for the first time, while Kirk Stevens, Tony Meo and Ray Reardon fell out of it.^[9] Six-time world champion Reardon dropped down to 38th from 15th.^[10] Teenager Stephen Hendry rose to 23rd from 51st.^[9] Ken Owers was the highest-ranked of the players who had joined the circuit in the 1986–87 season.^[9]

In the original list for the season, Perrie Mans was listed at 50th and George Ganim at 126th.^[4][11] There were 130 professionals listed, of which those ranked 121 or lower became "non-tournament" (NT) players, meaning that they were permitted to enter the world championship but no other tournaments.^[12][4] Mans resigned his membership of the WPBSA that year.^[13] The list as published in the Benson and Hedges Snooker Yearbook in 1987 omits Mans and Ganim, and has David Greaves above François Ellis;^[6] these differences are reflected in the table used below.