The professional snooker calendar encompasses an abundance of high-level competitions although the pinnacle is undoubtedly the Triple Crown events. The World Championship, The Masters, and the UK Championship make up this historic treble.
Since the sport was established at a regulated level only 11 players have managed to win all three competitions, and only three times did one individual win them all inside a calendar year.
Heading into the three events of 2024, five players are one win away from completing their Triple Crown. Most only lack a World Championship win on their CVs and here we will look at the players most likely to change that in the next few years.
Mark Allen
Mark Allen is certainly the leading active player who has not yet completed his Triple Crown although he has a strong chance of doing so in 2024. In the World Snooker odds, he is seen as one of the realistic champions in the opening major of the year at odds of 12/1.
Ronnie O’Sullivan is expected to run away with the honour according to snooker betting as he is a 5/2 favourite, although anything can happen on the high-pressure stage of the World Championships.
Allen will be one of the players most suited to stopping O’Sullivan as he will enter the 2024 tournament in strong form having already won the Players Championship this year.
He has prior experience in four Triple Crown finals despite never reaching the World Championship final. The UK Championship took him three final attempts to win and he won the Masters on his first final appearance in 2018.
At the age of 38, it is certainly not win or bust for Allen. He will surely have plenty more final appearances to come and considering his career consistency so far he will be amongst the favourites for the next several years.
If another player is to establish triple-crown winner status in the coming years then it will most likely be the current world number three from China.
Ding Junhui
Ding Jinhui is another player who has been consistently ranked high but is yet to crown his legacy with a World Championship victory.
He has appeared in five UK Championship finals of which he won three – which is a record for a non-British player – and his losses were both in the last two years with O’Sullivan having dealt the most recent defeat in 2023.
He was a finalist twice in The Masters. He won the latter against Marco Fu in 2011 after falling short in 2007 against Ronnie O’Sullivan.
The Chinese star’s only World Championship final appearance came in 2016 against Mark Selby in which he was beaten 18-14. He has not managed to improve on that since although year in and year out he is one of the players expected to go far in the competition, meaning his time could still come.
In the odds for this year’s event, he is a slight outsider at 20/1 although last year Belgian Luca Brecel invoked a shock on the frontrunners and Junhui’s potential victory would certainly not represent as much of a surprise.
Like Allen though, he will have plenty of years at the top level and many more attempts to become the World Champion and complete his Triple Crown.
Of the five players one win away from joining the list of Triple Crown champions, these two are the only players who can realistically join that group of elite players for the remainder of their careers.