Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes

Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes Fergal O Brien

Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes

Well, here we go again into the 2017 World Snooker Championships at the Crucible Sheffield. Each professional snooker player have no doubt had their cues serviced and their tips are played in and ready for their chance to become the World Snooker Champion for 2017. Have they had their cues serviced? Are their tips played in and perfect, I wouldn’t be so sure. Sometimes the tip is playing well and you just want that extra couple of weeks out of it and you’ve left it too long!

What always surprises me is the variety of shapes we see every year even to the point that the tip is larger than the ferrule! Is this because the cue ferrule is too small for the modern game or does the player now want a larger cross sectional area rather than change the cue or have major work completed like extended it?

Well I’ll leave that for you to decide but one things for sure, they certainly don’t agree on what the best tip is to carry off that illustrious crown.

That’s what I love about this game, everyone’s got to decide what equipment is right for them which either works or forever leaves them in doubt and open to biting the tip off as we’ve seen!

So, here are a selection of Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes from the 2017 World Professional Snooker Championships.

Either scroll down to look at all the tips or click on the player’s name and the hyperlink will take you straight there.

Ronnie O’Sullivan
Mark Selby
Fergal O’Brien
Gary Wilson
Shaun Murphy
Stuart Bingham
Yan Bingtao
Peter Ebdon
Kyren Wilson
David Grace
Ali Carter
Ding Junhui
John Higgins
Luca Brecel
Martin Gould
Rory McLeod
Stuart Carrington
Marco Fu
Neil Robertson
Noppon Saengkham
Barry Hawkins


Professional Tip Shape 1

 
 

Ronnie O’Sullivan

Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes - Ronnie O Sullivan

A standard shape and size for the 6 times World Champion here.

Nice burnished sides and the ‘Out of the box’ tip shape. Considering how many times Ronnie changes his tip I would never expect to see a worn tip on his cue.

I’m sure he could play with any tip on his cue as he is generally very quick to adapt to a new tip, even half way through a match!


Professional Tip Shape 2

 
 

Mark Selby

Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes - Mark Selby

No big surprises here with Mark Selby’s tip, all very conventional and very tidy.

As you can see the tip diameter is the same size as the ferrule and why shouldn’t it be, the cue had a major overhaul last year at Stamford Cues.

The tip sides have been burnished and the tip height looks like it hasn’t been on the cue that long; let’s hope he’s had enough table time to play it in…….I’m sure he has!

Mark Selby wasn’t happy with his tip and had it changed for the semi finals and just carried on as if nothing was different; as you can see below, a very nice tip similar to the one he took off. 

Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes - Mark Selby 2

 


Professional Tip Shape 3

 
 

Fergal O’Brien

Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes - Fergal O Brien

Well here we see Fergal O’Brien’s chosen tip for the World Championships.

He’s used an over sized tip for the size of ferule he has which is getting a little more common nowadays. Some players have had their cue for years and want to increase their tip size without changing their cue, this may be an example of that.


Professional Tip Shape 4

 
 

Gary Wilson

Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes - Gary Wilson

Gary has quite a low depth tip on here which feels like a more solid hit. Some players reduce the depth until they lose that spongy feel whilst retaining a decent grip.

Again, a nice tidy tip with burnished edges; this is a tip I would quite like myself but each to their own.


Professional Tip Shape 5

 
 

Shaun Murphy

Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes - Shaun Murphy

This tip doesn’t look that old so either the timing’s right for the World’s or Shaun’s possibly breaking one in?

Either way, he likes quite a large tip shape so it would be interesting how hard it is.


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Professional Tip Shape 6

 
 

Stuart Bingham

Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes - Stuart Bingham

Stuart’s seems to like this tip shape as he had a similar tip in the 2016 China Championship. He looked like he’d had a new tip in last years World Championships and struggled, this looks pretty new as well. It will be interesting to see how he gets on!

Take a look at some of his tips from last year here.


Professional Tip Shape 7

 
 

Yan Bingtao

Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes - Yan Bingtao

Again, no real surprises here from Yan with a fairly standard tip that isn’t that old.

Nicely burnished sides protect the shape of the tip and he sure plays with confidence. A nice dome shape on this one.


Professional Tip Shape 8

 
 

Peter Ebdon

Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes - Peter Ebdon

Not the greatest of pictures here but a pretty deep tip used by Peter Ebdon.

Interesting that Peter has a black ferrule, I’m reliably informed it’s a Stamford Zenith ferrule.


Professional Tip Shape 9

 
 

Kyren Wilson

Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes - Kyren Wilson

Kyren has a fairly compact tip here with some nice burnished sides, not too much margin for error on the tip height.

Unless he likes them fitted with a low depth it looks pretty well played in but certainly not everyone’s cup of tea looking at the other professionals.

Quarter Finals John Higgins vs Kyren Wilson

Well, Kyren did in fact have a couple of miss-cues with the tip off of the cushion which started to cost him. After miss-cueing he took a short break to repair the tip mid frame. Unfortunately, when Kyren returned he miss-cued again off the cushion on an important black and that was frame over.

If you take a look at the tip after the miss-cue you can just about see a little damage on the left hand side of the tip. Because of the height it has left very little room for a decent repair so you can understand why he had further problems.

Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes - Kyren Wilson 2

Below is Kyren’s tip in the last session. It is difficult to see if he actually did change it after the problems and tried to replicate the size at the beginning of the match; it does look slightly larger but it’s certainly difficult to tell.

Either way, tips can drive you mad and he did struggle in this match which was a shame as I’m sure he felt this might have been his year; he came up against an in form John Higgins so you have to be firing on all cylinders to match that!

Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes - Kyren Wilson 3


Professional Tip Shape 10

 
 

David Grace

Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes - David Grace

Now here’s a nice looking tip with burnished sides.

I don’t know whether the tip is solid but it certainly looks it. It’s a shame we couldn’t get a closer look to see if it is in fact laminated but the focus isn’t quite there! Another standard shape though. 


Professional Tip Shape 11

 
 

Ali Carter

Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes - Ali Carter

Very nice tip there that doesn’t look that old.

Standard dome shape with a decent amount of height and takes the chalk well…….no surprises here then!


Professional Tip Shape 12

 
 

Ding Junhui

Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes - Ding Junhui

A nice full tip here from Ding Junhui.

Plenty of height, well burnished and it takes the chalk nicely, what more could you want? Very neat indeed.


Professional Tip Shape 13

 
 

John Higgins

Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes - John Higgins

Now that’s a nice tip!

The tip looks well worn in and just right. A nice clean surface and the sides are very solid.I am informed that Mr Higgins uses a ‘Kamui Medium Hard’ tip for those of you that are interested.

Did John Higgins have his tip changed?

I’m told that John Higgins drove back to his cue doctor and had his tip changed as he wasn’t happy with it. Whether it’s a different tip he has it’s difficult to tell as you can see below. They look pretty similar to me but you’d expect that with a good cue doctor! Nice job…..

Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes - John Higgins 2


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Professional Tip Shape 14

 
 

Luca Brecel

Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes - Luca Brecel

Bit of a flat tip this for me but it’s probably been on there a little while.

Again, nothing unusual about this one and it certainly plays well!


Professional Tip Shape 15

 
 

Martin Gould

Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes - Martin Gould

A really nice dome shape here on Martin’s tip.

Not too much depth to the tip as it looks all dome but I’m sure it gives a decent feedback on the hit. The bit of chalk on the ferrule makes the shape look a bit misleading!


Professional Tip Shape 16

 
 

Rory McLeod

Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes - Rory McLeod

Personally this is my kind of tip but doesn’t suit most.

Not too much depth, not too much dome and a nice hard side to keep the tip stable. Again, it looks like a laminated tip but could be well burnished.


Professional Tip Shape 17

 
 

Stuart Carrington

Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes - Stuart Carrington

Well here’s a well used tip that’s just about holding on!

With hardly any depth left and a reasonable dome I usually find these tips are just about at their best before you sadly have to change them.


Professional Tip Shape 18

 
 

Marco Fu

Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes - Marco Fu

Well this is certainly not a small tip!

I guess we all like something different. This looks like a very slight trumpet tip where the ferrule size is slight smaller than the base of the dome. Barry Hawkins is a fan of this type of tip also but is a little more pronounced.

There’s certainly plenty of tip here!


Professional Tip Shape 19

 
 

Neil Robertson

Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes - Neil Robertson

A very standard type tip for Neil Robertson here.

A nice size tip this with no unusual features. Reasonable shape, well worn in. Not as clean cut as some pro’s tips but certainly does the job!


Professional Tip Shape 20

 
 

Noppon Saengkham

Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes - Noppon Saengkham

Another trumpet tip here so it must be catching on.

Marco Fu and Barry Hawkins like this set up so they all feel there’s something in it with a larger top surface area than the ferrule size. Another point of interest is it looks like the cue is worn down under the ferrule where the cue chalk is incorrectly used and catching the wood each time; rarely see that in a pro’s cue!


Professional Tip Shape 21

 
 

Barry Hawkins

Professional Snooker Player Tip Shapes - Barry Hawkins

Well, no surprises from Barry Hawkins this year, he goes with his normal shaped tip and it certainly works for him.

The tip has that crown (trumpet) shape and gives him a larger cross sectional area than the ferrule size, an interesting shape that seems to be getting more and more popular.


Well I hope this has given you some thoughts around your own tip shape and whether you want to try a shape that some of the world’s top players use.

They certainly don’t agree on which make and shape of tip is best so it’s just what works for you. At least you now have a little more to think about when choosing one for yourself.

If you like to try our tip fitting accessories out, then click this link.

Good Luck! 



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