Zhao Xintong has made history with his World Snooker Championship final win over Mark Williams at the Crucible.
Zhao needed just one more frame in Monday night’s fourth and final session in Sheffield to clinch the title and eventually wrapped up an 18-12 triumph following a last-gasp rally from Williams, who had reeled off the first four frames of the evening but was unable to maintain his comeback bid.
The three-time world champion - the oldest man ever to reach the final at 50 - was down 17-8 after being firmly second-best throughout the match and trailing 11-6 overnight after another dominant showing from his opponent, who became China and Asia’s first-ever world snooker champion.
Zhao had also made headlines by easing past Ronnie O’Sullivan in the semi-finals. The 28-year-old left both the Crucible and wider television audience in awe as he whitewashed the legendary seven-time champion 8-0 to take a commanding 12-4 lead heading into the evening, when he completed a ruthless 17-7 win with a full session to spare.
Zhao was just the fourth man ever to win every single frame in one session against O’Sullivan - the sport’s greatest-ever player - at the Crucible since his World Championship debut in 1993, with John Higgins, Graeme Dott and John Parrott having also achieved the feat.
Zhao also thrashed both Chris Wakelin and Jak Jones during his run to the championship, as well as withstanding a late fightback from compatriot Lei Peifan, who had stunned defending champion Kyren Wilson in the first round as the Crucible curse continued.
"What a potter he is," Williams said after losing the final to Zhao, who also took home £500,000 in prize money. "I am glad I will be too old when he is dominating.
"I have got nothing but admiration for what he has done, coming through the qualifiers, hasn’t played for two years, bashed Ronnie up, bashed me up, bashed everybody up.
"What can you say? There is a new superstar of the game."
Who is Zhao Xintong?
Zhao first burst onto the snooker scene as a gifted teenager and is one of a growing number of Chinese players to enter the professional ranks over the last decade or so, following in the footsteps of 15-time major-ranking title winner Ding Junhui, who lost the 2016 World Championship final.
He turned professional in 2016 and properly announced himself as one of snooker’s best young talents by winning the 2021 UK Championship in York, beating the likes of Higgins, Jack Lisowski, Barry Hawkins and then Luca Brecel.
Stylish left-hander Zhao followed that up with a second triumph at the Berlin Masters in January 2022, climbing up to eighth in the world rankings after beating Williams and Judd Trump en route to dominating fellow Chinese player Yan Bingtao in the final.
He spent time as high as No6 in the rankings and looked on a potential path to become China’s first-ever snooker world champion, only for his career to be derailed after being caught up in a huge corruption scandal that rocked the sport in 2022.
Zhao was among 10 Chinese players banned by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) in 2023, suspended from the World Snooker Tour (WST) for 20 months after accepting charges of being a party to another player fixing two matches and betting on matches himself.
Zhao - who did not fix a match himself - was ranked at No9 in the world at the time and had initially been banned for two years and six months, only for that to be reduced to one year and eight months due to early admissions and his guilty plea. He also had to pay £7,500 in costs.
It was the shortest suspension of the 10 handed out by the WPBSA Disciplinary Commission, with Liang Wenbo and Li Hang both given lifetime bans.
Lu Ning, Yan Bingtao, Zhao Jianbo, Chang Bingyu, Bai Langning, Chen Zifan and Zhang Jiankang were the other players to receive bans of varying lengths.
Zhao returned to competitive action last September after completing that suspension, winning four successive Q Tour Europe titles in Stockholm, Manchester, Vienna and Mons to finish top of the ranking list and earn a two-year tour card back on the World Snooker Tour.
He successfully came through qualifying for the UK Championship, where he was beaten 6-5 in the first round by Shaun Murphy on his return to top-level snooker at the York Barbican in November.
Zhao later won four qualifying matches to book his return to the World Championship, where he technically competed as an amateur as he works his way back fully. He is the first amateur ever to win the title and only the third qualifier, after the late Terry Griffiths in 1979 and Murphy in 2005.
