Steve Davis names top three snooker players of all time by ‘actual standard’

Steve Davis has named his top three snooker players of all time ‘by actual standard’ and his BBC colleague Stephen Hendry misses out.

Davis himself was once seen as the best in the baize business as he dominated the 1980s, but has now been usurped in the GOAT debate.

Hendry overtook him as he rattled off seven World Championship titles in the ’90s and, while the Scot is still in the conversation, Ronnie O’Sullivan has now taken the mantle in most onlookers’ eyes.

The Rocket is level with Hendry on seven world titles but is still very much in the hunt to break that record, tipped by some to reach eight this year.

The Nugget has O’Sullivan down as the greatest, but while they have not won as many world titles as Hendry or himself, he sees two other players in the top three of all time in terms of their standard of play.

The 68-year-old is a huge admirer of Mark Selby’s game, feeling he is underappreciated by those who don’t follow snooker closely.

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He puts the Jester from Leicester in with John Higgins and O’Sullivan in his best three players ever for the level of snooker they can produce.

‘He’s probably the most underrated player in the game by the general public who don’t watch enough snooker to realise how talented he is,’ Davis said on the BBC.

‘I think he’s top three standard ever.

Ronnie O’Sullivan, John Higgins and Mark Selby.

The actual standard.

Mark Williams is in there as well.

But an astonishing standard he [Selby] can produce, relentless stuff and once he’s in the zone, what a player.

‘But as we know, getting in the zone for this best-of-19 first round, which seems incredibly short a distance compared to the 25, which is your reward, it’s tough out there, you can panic.’
Selby is looking for a fifth world title this year, starting his campaign against Jak Jones on Wednesday morning.

If he can beat the Welshman then his reward is a meeting with 22-year-old Chinese star Wu Yize, who looked in sparkling form as he beat Lei Peifan in his opener.

Wu’s compatriot, the reigning world champion Zhao Xintong, is a player who some believe could break into the greatest of all time debate at some point in his career.

The Cyclone has just one world title to his name at this point, but Hendry thinks he can win many more in the years to come.

On claims that Zhao can take the game to another level, Hendry told Metro of the 29-year-old: ‘I just think it’s his sheer scoring power.

I think it’s on another level, to even the likes of Judd [Trump] and Selby,’ said the seven-time world champion.

‘I mean, they’re obviously heavy scorers, these top players, but he’s winning almost one in every two frames in one visit.

It’s just frightening scoring and I just think it’s not going to drop.

‘I think the way he plays, the attitude he has – maybe he’s not the competitor that the likes of O’Sullivan or Higgins are, in terms of being scraped off the table if he’s not playing well – but just the form he’s on, I think he’s awesome.

‘I just think he doesn’t look like he hurts from a loss as much as I did, or Higgins, or O’Sullivan.

Williams doesn’t show it, but he’s always gutted to lose.

‘That’s what I mean by that sort of competitor.

Because when I lost, it was be-all and end-all.

It felt like the end of the world when I lost in the UK or the World, these big ones.

But it doesn’t seem to be like that for Zhao Xintong.

‘I think you either have that or you don’t, that’s what I mean.

He’s maybe not the sort of hardened competitor that the big legends of the game down the years have been.

‘I don’t think it really bothers him.

I think it makes him more dangerous.’