1996 
YEAR 
1998
The Swedish superstar Jan-Ove Waldner finished the year after a stellar run at the World Championships, beating the rising Belarussian star – Vladimir Samsonov in the final. Waldner also two Pro Tour titles and added a bronze at the Europe Top 16 tournament. It was the last year when the Swedish veteran was leader of the World Rankings.
TOP 30 PLAYERS IN THE WORLD RANKING
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1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
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12
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14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
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25
26
27
28
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30
Player
Jan-Ove Waldner
Vladimir Samsonov
Kong Linghui
Yan Sen
Jean-Philippe Gatien
Ding Song
Ma Wenge
He Zhi Wen
Zoran Primorac
Wang Liqin
Johnny Huang
Werner Schlager
Wang Tao
Milan Grman
Hiroshi Shibutani
Lucjan Blaszczyk
Ilija Lupulesku
Ma Lin
Liu Song
Kim Taek-soo
Petr Korbel
Steffen Fetzner
Kalinikos Kreanga
A.Karakaševic
Dmitry Mazunov
Carl Prean
Zsolt Harczi
Peter Karlsson
Koji Matsushita
Patrick Chila
N
WC
1/4
1/4
1/4
1/4
R16
R16
R16
R16
R16
R16
R16
R16
R16
R32
R32
R32
R32
R32
R32
R32
R32
R32
R32
R32
R32
R32
WCU
1/4
x
x
x
x
x
x
GS
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
1/4
x
x
GS
x
x
x
x
x
x
GS
E16
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
GS
x
GS
x
x
x
x
x
x
GS
PRO TOUR
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Description
N – Nationality EC – World Championships WCU – World Cup E12 – Europe Top 16 & other flags – Pro Tour events
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