KOZOOM - The undisputed number one in the world title rankings (21) is Raymond Ceulemans, but since 1991 the Belgian legend has never topped the UMB world ranking on the first day of the year. Torbjörn Blomdahl (11 times number one, 26 times in top five) and Dick Jaspers (7 times number one, 28 times in top five) are by far the most regular players in 30 seasons when the individual world rankings were published. Frédéric Caudron, another famous world top player, was the number one for 6 times and in top five 14 times, making him the number 3 overall. The scores were drawn up on 1st of January in the years 1991 to 2020. The Dutch numerator Bert van Manen has made the statistics.
Raymond Ceulemans was up in the rankings until 1997, five years before he won his last three cushion world title in Luxembourg and stopped playing individual tournaments: seven times in top five. Torbjörn Blomdahl (6 world titles) topped the world rankings for the first time in 1991 with 385 points ahead of Raymond Ceulemans, Ludo Dielis, Richard Bitalis and Dick Jaspers. The most notable players in the top 25 that season: 6. Nobuaki Kobayashi, 7. Sang Chun Lee, 22. Torbjörn's father Lennart Blomdahl. In the first three years (1991, 1992, 1993), the Swedish record holder topped the ranking three times followed by Ceulemans, Jaspers, Lee, Dielis and Zanetti.
In the second year, Dani Sánchez (13th) and Frédéric Caudron (17th) appeared for the first time in the top 25. After three peak years from Blomdahl, Sang Chun Lee took over hegemony for one year when he led before Blomdahl, Ceulemans, Zanetti and Jaspers in 1994. That was the year in which Semih Sayginer and the later Japanese world champion Ryuuji Umeda climbed the rankings.
Dick Jaspers took his first top position in 1995 ahead of Blomdahl, Sayginer, Ceulemans and Carlsen with two Belgian, upcoming top guns at 14 and 15: Caudron and Merckx. Torbjörn Blomdahl took over again for two years in 1996 and 1997 with Ceulemans and Jaspers in the run-up positions. In the next three years until 2000, Jaspers, Blomdahl and Jaspers were the front runners, Dion Nelin and Raimond Burgman were new comers in the top five. Torbjörn Blomdahl set a first record with 490 ranking points in 1999. The new century started again with three times Blomdahl on top position, Sang Chun Lee on 2 (2000), Dani Sänchez on 2 (2001), Dick Jaspers on 2 (2002) and Marco Zanetti on 2 (2003) .
Semih Sayginer, in the year after his first and only world title (2003), led the world's top five in 2004 ahead of four famous top guns: Blomdahl, Caudron, Zanetti and Jaspers. Then, one year later, the top position went to Dani Sánchez twice (2005 and 2006), once with a record score, 498 ranking points. After Blomdahl (in 2007), when Kyung Roul Kim recorded his first top ten position, Frédéric Caudron (with Roland Forthomme in the top five) took his first pole position at the start of the year with a new record of 504 ranking points. That was improved by Dick Jaspers one year later with 540 points (2009).
Dick Jaspers preceded Sánchez, Caudron, Blomdahl and Bury in 2010 with the Koreans Sung-Won Choi and Jung-Han Heo for the first time in top 20. The Dutchman extended that first place in 2011 followed by Caudron, Kyung-Roul Kim, Eddy Merckx and Martin Horn in 2011. Caudron, Blomdahl and again Caudron were the front runners in the next three years up to and including 2014, Filippos Kasidokostas was number three in that last year, Quyet Chien Tran entered the rankings for the first time. Eddy Merckx led the 2015 ranking ahead of Sung-Won Choi and Frédéric Caudron.
Dick Jaspers and Frédéric Caudron were two times number one in the last five years of the rankings from 2016 to 2020. The Belgian in 2017 and 2018 ahead of Merckx and Jaspers. Myung-Woo Cho and David Martinez entered the top 25 for the first time. The Dutchman, Dick Jaspers, led Caudron and Zanetti in 2019 and 2020.
Worth mentioning:
1991: 10 Dieter Müller, 13 Rini van Bracht
1992: 18 Jose Maria Quetglas, 22 Martin Spoormans
1993: 19 Francis Connesson
1994: 16 Christ van der Smissen
1995: 19 Arie Weijenburg
1996: 25 Ramon Rodriguez
1997: 17 John Tijssens, 21 Nikos Polychronopoulos, 23 Bert van Manen
1998: 11 Gerwin Valentijn
1999: 24 Peter De Backer
2000: 15 Eddy Leppens
2001: 10 Jakob Haack Sörensen, 21 Pedro Piedrabuena
2002: 23 Francis Forton
2003: 9 Filippos Kasidokostas, 10 Luis Aveiga
2006: 13 Murat Naci Coklu, 16 Adnan Yüksel
2008: 14 Jean Paul de Bruijn
2010: 13 Jef Philipoom
2011: 20 Lütfi Cenet,21 Anh Vu Duong
2012: 17 Javier Teran
2013: 18 O Takeshima
2014: 24 Dinh Nai Ngo
2015: 15 Sameh Sidhom, 19 Nguyen Quoc Nguyen
2016: 17 HaengJik Kim
2017: 23 Minh Cam Ma
2018: 21 Myung Woo Cho, 22 Eddy Leppens, 23 David Martinez
2019: 22 Robinson Morales
2020: 16: Duc Anh Chien Nguyen.
The top of the ranking from 1991 to 2020 (top one positions and top five positions):
1 Torbjörn Blomdahl 11 times number one, 26 times top five
2 Dick Jaspers 7/28
3 Frédéric Caudron 6/14
4 Dani Sánchez 2/10
5 Semih Sayginer 1/9
6 Marco Zanetti 14 times top five
7 Raymond Ceulemans 6 times top five
8 Dion Nelin 4 times
9 Jérémy Bury 3 times
10 Tayfun Tasdemir 2 times.