Talking of which, I’ll see you then. Peace out!
Mark is too good to rule out, but Zhao is too good and playing too well to rule him in. Pressure might change things as we get closer to the end, but if you’re pushing me, I’m saying I don’t think we get much of an evening dig tomorrow.
Zhao Xintong leads Mark Williams 11-6 at the end of day one
Zhao played well but can play much better; Mark will have to do something outrageous to stop the little shepherdess going to China for the first time.
Updated
Williams 5-11 Xintong (56-43) Zhao plays a risky pot, gets nowhere near … and flukes a snooker. Mark escapes … and leaves. The run did not go for him there, but it does when the chance is spurned … but he then misses to middle! We’re back playing safety … and now it’s Mark who saves himself by fluking a safety. We’ve not hard much drama of this ilk, most frames decided earlier on, and is this one soon over? Zhao’s escape allows Mark to flow home a decent starter, but can he get from yellow to green, the latter just off the right side? Oh yes he can, great shot! Brown and blue required!
Updated
Williams 5-11 Xintong (45-43) Mark gets into trouble before attacking the two difficult balls; can he slot to right corner with the rest? Of course he can, he gets some deep screw off the black to promote one of the reds, and then considers whether to play for the other or lay a snooker; again, he takes the percentage option, leaving white on black cush but not getting his line right; as such, when he returns to the table, he’s the one in the snooker. He escapes, though, and gets the final red safe. We’ve not had many frames end with the players chasing balls late doors.
Williams 5-11 Xintong (23-43 Mark does, though, take on a longun to right corner, and when he misses that, he’ll be fearing the worst. I fancied Zhao for this, pretty strongly, but I didn’t think it’d be the hiding that now looks likely. As I type, he sends a lovely recovery-blue into the yellow bag … only to lose the white potting the next ball and jaws a pink! Mark returns to the table with two reds on black cush.
Williams 5-11 Xintong (15-14) Nope, and I’m not surprised. Miss and he’s not going to be world champion; refuse and you never know.
Williams 5-11 Xintong (15-14) On nothing, though, he plays safe, then leaves Mark a dart to left corner; down goes the opener. A thin cut with the rest, on the black, then keeps him at the table, but the next shot is a toughie too, a red down the side but not on the rail … and it stays out, just. Zhao, though, can’t properly capitalise, forced to play safe; Mark then gets in again, and will he take on a vile blue, knowing he’s leaving all sorts?
Williams 5-11 Xintong (6-1) Zhao can’t snick to left-middle; Mark can cut to the yellow bag, but as the white retreats, we enjoy our first “WHERE IS THE CUT-BALL GOING!” of the final. But off the blue, he can’t cut from left side to right corner, so his opponent wobbles in an opener.
Williams 5-11 Xintong Zhao is unreal, an irresistible, compelling mesh of opposites: joyful and calm, precise and carefree. Mark must win the last frame of the evening – there is one – to have even a sniff tomorrow.
Williams 5-10 Xintong (6358) It’s blue to yellow, then colours off their spots; Zhao doesn’t look over-exicted nor does he look nervous; he’s a bouncing bundle of precision. Black for the dish….
Williams 5-10 Xintong (63-31) Zhao plays a lovely cannon to open out reds, the colours are on their spots, and we’ve a new favourite for the frame; Ken trots out the cliche quicker than I can type it.
Williams 5-10 Xintong (63-16) Too straight to get from blue into pack, Mark instead plays for a loose one mid-distance, he’s on it, it’s frame-ball … and he leaves it over the bag! I didn’t see that coming, but you can only chase for so long. And make no mistake, though the corrections weren’t big ones, he was making them every shot. If Zhao dishes here, Mark’ll do well not to barf up the entirety of his insides; I daresay he’s feeling a touch peaky already.
Williams 5-10 Xintong (58-0) A lax positional shot means a blue tickled home dead-weight, a red to right corner follows and he’s on to the black. But can he get from that on to the red at the bottom of the pack – or rather, does it go? I think it does, so does he, and by binning it he liberates more balls. Mark’s under pressure here, chasing a little because he’s trying to make sure of every pot, but doing just enough with every recovery. What a competitor he is.
Williams 5-10 Xintong (17-0) Earlier this evening, John Parrott suggested there’d be 17 frames today, not 16; it may have been a miscount, so I’m not sure whether or not this is the last frame of the day. Either way, though, Mark must win it, so he attempts a double off Zhao’s break … and it’s there. He then takes a while working out whether a red cuts to left corner … decides it does, and … lovely shot. There are still a fair few loose reds.
Williams 5-10 Xintong A 102 from Zhao, and these are scary hours for Mark J. It’s funny, with most players – Mark included, but all the best ones – you can tell when they’re focusing extra-hard to win a big frame. Check out Shaun Murphy in that kind of situation. Zhao, though, seems carefree in the balls – he really, really loves potting them – just letting it flow, not having to think about reminding himself not to think.
Updated
Williams 5-9 Xintong (23-91) Here comes another ton.
Williams 5-9 Xintong (23-74) Zhao’s so good at converting starts to telling contributions. Again: I’m yet to discern a weakness in his game or make-up but if someone with a better technical eye than me has any suggestions, please send em in.
Williams 5-9 Xintong (23-44) Off the brown, Zhao cannons the pack and the shot works out beautifully. I actually checked out the odds on him to win after he smacked Jak Jones in round one as, with Kyren Wilson gone, the top half of the draw was suddenly underpowered. 4/1 was what I found, so I let it be; I’m regretting that now.
Williams 5-9 Xintong (23-7) Mark’s long game has been much improved tonight, and again, he essays a long starter with composed precision, sliding dead slow into left corner. It’s soon into the pack and is he on one? There a cut from high on the left side, diagonally to the green bag … it clips one edge … then the other … and down it goes! The crowd, who of course love themselves a bitta Mark J, roar their appreciation, but he’s soon forced to play safe having run out of position … or will he try a narrow cut past the black? Oooh, it’s the latter, and you can see right away he’s undercut it … it flicks the black and will that take it in? Almost. Zhao, though, who hasn’t potted for 27 minutes, must now find a red to roll into the one that’s over the bag because he can’t get at it otherwise … and it stays out. So Mark goes hard at an oblique one to right corner, careers into the pack, and leaves a starter; Zhao plays it beautifully, slotting to middle then sneaking off the side and between black and pack to get on the next ball. A decent contribution here will guarantee him a decent overnight lead.
Williams 5-9 Xintong Again, Mark closes to within four; last time he did that, Zhao then won two to get back to six, and if he manages that again, it’ll take a collapse for the ages to stop him becoming China’s first world champion sometime tomorrow.
Williams 4-9 Xintong (69-0) A fine cut with the spider puts the frame beyond doubt.
Updated
Williams 4-9 Xintong 681-0) There are three loose reds and four together; if Mark deals with the former, he won’t need the latter, and that he does. A delicate cut-black and it’s snookers required … it clips the near jaw … and is going so slowly, it drops. Relief for TWPM.
Williams 4-9 Xintong (31-0) A red to left-centre, across the table, offers the chance to float back up the table to remove a red that’s blocking off the black, and this is now a frame-winning opportunity.
Williams 4-9 Xintong (1-0) Mark leaves a longun off the break but Zhao hits the near jaw of right corner; chance for Mark, reds nicely split.
Updated
Williams 4-9 Xintong Zhao misses a red and concedes. Mark, knowing he has to force the issue, is going after almost everything.
Williams 3-9 Xintong When Mark runs out of position, Zhao returns to the table needing four four-point snookers; it’s not clear why.
Williams 3-9 Xintong (55-14) Mark steers long to clip into right corner and is playing much better tonight; problem he has is much better isn’t good enough. He’s relying on hitting his lights-out best, or on Zhao having a stinker at some point, neither of which seem that likely. Meantime, though, the frame is his.
Williams 3-9 Xintong (40-14) Mark builds with characteristic fastidiousness only to run out of position; rather than play safe, he attacks a long green – the kind he played as youth but treats with greater trepidation now he’s struggling with seeing well. That’s the pressure Zhao exerts – the scores comes so freely, a vet like Mark J feels obliged to take stuff on when he’s in. And he clips home a beauty, but then, taking on a nasty cut, lands on nowt; end of break.
“Not sure if this has been floated before,” writes Hugh Molloy, “but it would be great to see the embrace of China in snooker with a Ryder Cup style competition. It’s always a different feel in golf to that competition with the real team mentality, more player interaction and learning about the characters. Golf style pairs, alternate shots, alternate frames, singles to finish, crowd a bite edgier and swapping locations each time. GB and Ireland v China? Europe v Asia? What do we think?”
Team sport is less compelling when forced upon individual pursuits – the Ryder Cup works, I think, significantly because of how familiar we are with American culture and the nature of American golf culture. But yup, I’d watch.
Williams 3-9 Xintong (2-14) Mark thunders a starter to left corner, then snuggles up to the black; Zhao plays off the side and into the pack. Thinking about what four frames we just saw, you’ve got to admire those two balls he sent to the yellow bag, fantastic efforts in any circumstance, but given he’d twice missed a similar shot, the stones to attack it at full space are extremely impressive. Meantime, Mark misses to middle so Zhao cracks home an opener … then shortly afterwards overcuts black to corner! Mark must punish the oversight.
Interval email: Wow, that Hendry clip really took me back,” retiurns Simon McMahon. “He was virtually unbeatable for a while in the 90s. (Phil) Taylor-esque. Loved him, and love snooker, especially this tournament, but I wonder if that’s because I grew up in the 8os? The iconic images from that decade are imprinted in my mind, Davis’s first title in 81, Higgins’s tears (and of course his all-time great green shirt with brown collars) in 82, the Taylor black-ball final in 85, Joe Johnson winning the following year. Then of course Hendry and White in the 90s, seven titles for Hendry, none for Jimmy, not forgetting his missed black off the spot in 94. Sure, John Higgins, Williams, O’Sullivan and Selby have kept the fire burning, but with talk of leaving the Crucible, I worry a bit, a lot actually, for the future of snooker, in this country at least. What say you?”
I’m a little younger than you – 1984 is the first year I remember. But Hendry’s line after Jimmy’s missed black has stuck with me – “I couldn’t get out my chair fast enough”. I think, though, that snooker is doing pretty well with good attendances at lots of the competition. It’ll never hit the heights of the golden era because there are so many telly channels to distract casual fans, and when ronnie turns it in it’ll be a problem, but darts is thriving without Taylor.
Updated
Williams 3-9 Xintong Zhao misses a black but Mark doesn’t return to the table. He’s got problems; we’ll be back in 15.
Updated
Williams 3-8 Xintong (0-68) That break in the last frame gave Zhao a bit of confidence – every session is a new day, whatever the score – and he’s cueing much better now. If Mark can’t do better after the interval, he’ll need to do something absolutely spectacular tomorrow to even get close.
Williams 3-8 Xintong (0-32) Mark then offers a longun to the yellow bag … and Zhao strikes home lovelilily, avoiding blue and yellow, then sends a similar ball down the same hole. The way the balls are, this is a chance to level the mini-sesh at 2-2 and, as we said, because of what happened this afternoon, that’d be an absolute result for him.
Updated
Williams 3-8 Xintong (0-18) Off the break, Mark leaves a longun … and Zhao creeeaaaams it into left corner with intense prejudice. Then, a lovely positional shot off the yellow brings him back up the table for the next ball only for his split to go wrong. He is, though, on a red to centre, slots it confidently, then a pink … only to lose control of the white, a springy bounce off the cushion forcing him to play safe.
Williams 3-8 Xintong He cannot, but he’ll be happy to restore his five-frame advantage and feel like he’s in the session.
Williams 3-7 Xintong (9-68) Zhao secures the frame, his first of the evening; can he underline his backness by recording a third ton?
Williams 3-7 Xintong (9-61) This is an important settler for Zhao, who knows he can happily split the sessions from here on in. The frame is almost his.
Williams 3-7 Xintong (9-29) Back in good old 1992, Mark was a blazing long-potter, and he essays one off the break … and it’s there! An absolute humdinger! But he can’t sink black, so know Zhao is at the table scoring, and the thought occurs, that his nickname, The Cyclone, ought really to be The Babyfaced Assassin; he looks miles off his 28 years. Anyhow, he soon misses one he shouldn’t, overcutting to left corner, and can Mark capitalise? He’ll have to chop a red just above the top cushion to right corner … and leaves it on the lip and insurance for his opponent. This is a big visit for Zhao, who hasn’t got going this evening; the table could scarcely be friendlier.
Updated
Williams 3-7 Xintong Indeed he is. Mark would’ve aimed for a 3-1 mini-sesh and needs one of the next two to make that happen. For the first time, Zhao is struggling.
Williams 2-7 (57-8) Xintong Has momentum shifted? Zhao responds poorly to Mark’s cunning, leaves a long red, and down it goes … only for a dead-weight black to stop short. But he’s soon offered another go, Zhao sending the blue in-off, and this should be TWPM another one frame closer.
Williams 2-7 Xintong (37-8) Good pot to get on to the green, then it’s into the pack But coming off the side for fear of potting the pink he cannot welease weds, so it’s a safety and end of break. Zhao then creams home a starter and, on nowt, lays a snooker behind yellow and brown; Mark’s escape, off three cushions and on to the bottom of the cluster last roll, is a work of art.
Updated
Williams 2-7 (21-7) Xintong Now then. Zhao tries sending one long to the yellow bag and doesn’t get close; Mark tidies, and if he can break the pack nicely, the frame will be there for him. In the meantime, though, he picks around the fringes.
Williams 2-7 Xintong (15-7) Zhao cues across one to left corner so Mark sinks to the same bag; if he can bin a nasty black along the rail, he’s in … and he plays it beautifully. This is much more like it, except, as I type, Mark misses a pink to middle, leaving an opener and other loose balls – though the black is tied up and so is the pink now it’s been potted
Updated
Williams 2-7 Xintong He cannot, but he won’t mind. He needed this frame and it’s his, but the same applies to the next.
Williams 1-7 Xintong (69-0) Mark makes the frame safe failing snookers, then eases a tight one to middle by way of insurance. Can he underline his renaissance by recording a ton?
Williams 1-7 Xintong (39-0) Good work from Mark, who carefully removes balls.
“One thing that’s always really annoyed me about snooker is players leaving the arena after almost every frame,” fumes Simon McMahon. “Why is this allowed? I guess given the length of some matches players might be entitled to the occasional comfort break, but there’s already an interval after every four frames. Aren’t sporting contests psychological as well as physical, and part of this is being made to stay in your seat having lost the last three frames without potting a ball as your opponent stares at you, rather than popping out to the ‘bathroom’ to gee yourself up in the mirror. I can’t think of many other sports where the players can just voluntarily leave the field of play when they feel like it, and everyone else will just wait until they’re ready. Anyway, great start from Zhao.”
Leaving or not leaving is part of the psychological contest, I’d say. And I guess it’s tricky to tell an adult that they can’t go to the toilet, given there’s little prospect of them sweating out any excess liquid. That said, I don’t recall Stefan Mazrocis being a regular offender, and he was draining beers.
Williams 1-7 Xintong (9-0) Mark goes at one left dangling following the break; he misses by a way, as does Zhao when sending long to the green bag. So Mark sinks a cut to middle, adds a gentle cut-back black, and this is better.
It’s once again time for Rob Walker. He introduces the players, the crowd go wild, and we’re almost ready to go.
Never mind this is a massive session coming up; this is a massive frame. If Zhao wins it, he’ll be at least level overnight and his momentum will feel inexorable; Mark isn’t a streaky player likely to peel off five or six on the spin; he’s more likely to win two of every three, even that would leave him behind overnight, and it also feels unlikely given Zhao’s break-building ability. I don’t really want to say I fear this is already over, but I need to be honest so you can all laugh at me later. As such, I fear this is already over.
We go again!
That, then, is us – for now. Join me again at 6.45pm BST for the evening sesh and, in the meantime, dig into these:
Updated
An incredible afternoon for Zhao – who, don’t forget, is officially an amateur until he’s back on the tour next term. He’s not played anywhere near his best but Mark, perhaps feeling a hangover from yesterday, hasn’t got going at all. He’ll need all his wiles to get back into this – even a 5-3 second session would leave him four behind – but if anyone can do it, he can.
Williams 1-7 Zhao A missed red with the red, down the side rail, means Zhao must settle for a mere 83. But he leads by a mighty six frames, and if he plays closer to his best tonight, Mark is seriously struggling.
Updated
Williams 1-6 Zhao (0-82) Zhao deserves every bit of this break for the glorious opener her conjured. A third ton of the afternoon is there for him.
Williams 1-6 Zhao (0-73) Zhao secures the frame. A good start tonight and he’ll be almost out of sight.
Williams 1-6 Zhao (0-43) Zhao builds, a lovely little cut-back keeping him going, and he is bang in charge of this final. You’d never know he’s not played in one of these before.
Updated
Williams 1-6 Zhao (0-16) Mark needs three goes to find a route back to baulk but gets there in the end. He really must find a way to win this frame, but Zhao is about to address a hopeful plant to left corner, the balls not that close to the bag nor dead-set … and have a look! That’s a brilliant effort! You don’t see many of those and I’d fancy him to make something significant off the back of that.
Williams 1-6 Zhao A 104, a five-frame lead, and Zhao hasn’t even played well yet. Mark’s in all sorts.
Updated
Williams 1-5 Zhao (0-92) Zhao cues beautifully to get rid of the final red and, when he tickles a blue to middle, it’s colours off their spots, a second ton inevitable.
Updated
Williams 1-5 Zhao (0-65) Zhao almost goes in-off, instead finishes on the next ball, and this is going to be 6-1.
Williams 1-5 Zhao (0-44) Zhao carefully and confidently removes balls. He knows how important this visit is, but so far is riding the pressure pretty well, opening the pack and freeing everything therein. We said it!
Williams 1-5 Zhao (0-23) The players prod in and out of the reds, prime re-rack territory, then a loose one from Zhao allows Mark to play a pot … except he can’t get it down, it stays over the bag, and this is a chance for the Chinese to take control of the match. If he can even split the last two frames, he’s flying, but there’s every chance he takes both. Ahahaha, but of course, as I type, he misses a dolly to middle … and so does Mark to corner! He just can’t get anything going and if he’s not careful, by the time he does, Zhao will be out of sight.
Williams 1-5 Zhao A real heel to the solar plexus for Mark. He daren’t lose either of the next two because, though it’s a long match, he’s playing an opponent likely to reel off a fair few frames in one visit.
Updated
Williams 1-4 Zhao (61-51) There are two reds just above black cush but Mark should be able to get on the higher of them. Instead, though, he develops the other, leaving himself a minging skinny cut-back to left corner … and to which he does not get close. Oh and he also leaves one! Gosh, these are big moments already, and when Zhao gets nicely on the last red, with colours on their spots the frame looks likely to be his.
Updated
Williams 1-4 Zhao (16-37) A strange shot-choice from Zhao, bumping pack off top rail instead of crashing into it like AJ Tracey, means it’s soon end of break. I’m surprised he was so conservative, but I guess he doesn’t want to take any chances with his lead. And, shonuff, his timidity is soon punished; perhaps smarting at his behaviour, he takes on a double and misses; Mark clips in a fine starter before building an important contribution.
Updated
Williams 1-4 Zhao (0-21) Both players leave the arena then Mark returns and immediately leaves a starter off the break; Zhao sends it down then gets to work.
Williams 1-4 Zhao If Zhao keeps winning the scrappy ones, Mark has a problem.
Williams 1-3 Zhao (49-72) Mark clears to the blue, so now only needs two snookers given the higher value of balls left … but he then leaves a pot.
Williams 1-3 Zhao (40-72) Sending blue to middle, Zhao gets too much on the white, making frame-ball red harder than necessary; he’s high above it and needs to cut from centre to right corner and cannot. However a good cue-ball means Mark then hits the pink so, with three snookers required, he clears a few, lays one Zhao escapes, then goes again soon after; that’s one.
Williams 1-3 Zhao (28-43) Clever from Zhao, sending a red on the right side towards left corner, where there’s another over the bag; down it goes. So Zhao narrows the gap, a nice red to middle keeping the run going, then another sent long to the yellow bag. That’s lovely, and one of the many things I like about how this boy plays is that he fully commits to his shots once he’s decided to take them on. This looks a lot like 4-1.
Updated
Williams 1-3 Zhao (28-5) They play in and out of the pack from near the top rail, then Zhao spots a three-ball plant to the yellow bag … and it’s there! But he’s on nowt! Perhaps out of disappointment, his next shot is poor, bringing the black back into play while leaving one to right corner, and that’s the creeping pressure Mark imposes. He’s into the match now, and increasingly it’s of the ilk he desires it to be. But as I type, he runs out of position, so we’re back playing safety.
Williams 1-3 Zhao (1-0) Mark wobbles a long starter into right corner but lands snookered on a colour; he jokes he’s going for yellow, completely inaccessible, and after much classic Crucible mirth, he plays safe off the black.
Updated
We go again…
Williams 1-3 Zhao (51-28) Zhao leaves a cut-back, Mark sends it home dead slow, and when asked to pot another ball to make sure, he strokes a beauty into left corner then doubles the blue to make sure. He needed that badly, and we’ll be back in 15. Both men look to be feeling it.
Williams 0-3 Zhao (51-28) Ooooh, but Zhao quickly finds on, white behind black with brown just off the baulk cushion; Mark hits well.
Williams 0-3 Zhao (51-28) Mark goes almost enough, clearing to the brown then playing safe with one snooker required
Williams 0-3 Zhao (34-28) A cut-back to left corner, though, won’t be easy, and when Mark misses it he leaves a tester to right corner; most important shot of the match so far coming up. And Zhou strikes home a beauty, then goes at a black to middle … but this is a very poor effort. Mark understandably started badly – last night will have taken plenty out of him – and he might just’ve brought Zhao down to his level. This should be TWPM on the board.
Williams 0-3 Zhao (24-21) A poor shot leaves Zhao low on the blue so he goes at brown to the yellow … and it stays out, the brown making bridging sufficiently awkward such that Mark opts against taking on a pot. Which, this game being this game, turns out to be good news, because after Zhao gets away via fluke, he misses broon to middle, leaving a scoring chance.
Williams 0-3 Zhao (16-19) Mark takes on a cross-double, side rail to right corner, as a shot to nothing, and it’s there. Then, with nothing on, he nuzzles into the brown; Zhao’s escape is good enough, and we’re back playing safety, the phase in which you feel he must dominate if he’s to win this match. He cannot, though, win this exchange, leaving a starter, and this is a crucial visit (to the table) coming up.
Williams 0-3 Zhao (15-0) He cannot, a horrible positional shot forcing him to play safe.
Williams 0-3 Zhao (14-0) Zhao misses to right corner, so Mark gets away to left. This is a chance to exorcise the disappointment of the previous frame, but can he pot well enough for long enough?
Williams 0-3 Zhao Believe! Mark will feel pretty poorly having lost frame; rightly so. He’s under big pressure to take the final frame of the mini-sesh; if he doesn’t, he’s in big trouble.
Williams 0-2 Zhao (41-40) Zhao leaves a cuttable green to right-middle; Mark tickles home, then kisses blue in between white and brown; he escapes his own snooker well. But he leaves a long brown; this’d be some shot if Zhao can cut it into right corner … and it is some shot! He is some player! But the blue, a cut-back to the yellow bag, is a munter, and the pink’s on the side, way down in baulk … oh and have a look! First he pots and gets position, then slots pink and comes back up the table to get on to the black! He is so, so good … AND THEN HE MISSES THE MUCH EASIER BALL! This game, my friends, this game. So Mark faces a long, long diag for the frame … and he can’t see it away. Can Zhao sink the cut-back and keep the white out of the middle?
Williams 0-2 Zhao (41-25) The last red is on the side and Mark leaves himself a double on it … which stays out! Zhao can slide this to right-middle, a real tester … and that’s right in the heart of the pocket! The Welsh Potting Machine will feel in need of a service if this one sneaks away from him, but a fly halts the clear-up, then it’s a cut to left corner … which leaps out of the jaws. The frame remains in the balance, both players now looking nervous.
Updated
Williams 0-2 Zhao (33-17) Mark goes at another skinny one, leaving a brutally straight diag almost the full length of the table; Zhao drills it home and has the cue-power to bring the white back. Like everyone, sometimes he’s good and other times less so, but I’ve yet to appraise a weakness. He can’t, though, fashion a proper chance, plays a poor safety, and when Mark punishes that oversight, the escape leaves a cut to left corner.
Williams 0-2 Zhao (33-8) Mark looks at jamming in behind a red on black cush from on top … and that’s a glorious pot. The frame is opening out for him, but there’s work to do yet, all the more so when a poor positional shot means he’s got to use the rest for the black … and he can’t poke it down. No matter: though he misses a thin contact, leaving one to the yellow bag when he hits, Zhao can’t slide it long, Mark soon snicks in a starter then plays safe off the green ,hoping to force an error. There are four reds remaining.
Williams 0-2 Zhao (13-4) Gosh, Mark wants to win this frame and wants to win it now. He takes on a pair of mid-rangers rather than sit down, then loos at taking one from the tip of the cluster into left corner, knowing he’s sending claret all over … and that’s beautifully done. But dare he go at a brown to middle? You betcha! But he hits the far jaw, leaves a chance … and Zhao misses pink to middle. He’ll not have expected that reprieve, and must now make something of it.
Updated
Williams 0-2 Zhao (1-3) Andrew Benton emails thusly: “Just to note that Zhao is his surname, Xintong his first names, so it’d be: Williams 0-1 Zhao. Chinese names usually have the surname first.” Thanks, you’re not the first to message on this point; i guess in the snooker world, for whatever reason it’s been flip-turned upside down, with Chinese players referred to by their surnames, but as first names – your Ding Junhuis, Xu Sis, Pang Junxus and Wu Yizes of this world. Wu, by the way, is every bit as talented as Zhao – he pushed Mark hard in round one – he just needs to lift his mental game to the same stratosphere as his technical game. As soon as he does, he’ll start winning the bigguns and maybe even before. Meantime, Mark leaves a nasty one near left corner, Zhao pumps it home … then massively underdoes a cut-back along the side that doesn’t get that close to left corner. Can Mark capitalise?
Williams 0-2 Xintong Zhao removes the balls, finishing with a ton. Already, you feel Mark must win one of the next two.
The first time they met 🤩
— Vic Snooker Academy (@Vics_Snooker) May 4, 2025
An exhibition we organised for Mark in China. Xintong won 2-1 making a century break🔥🔥🔥
Zhao Xintong was 13 pic.twitter.com/lgFKf5FnHs
Williams 0-1 Zhao (38-44) Zhao forges in front and there’s no sense he’s going to miss. He is very, very special.
Updated
Williams 0-1 Xintong (38-28) “Unreported Mark Williams stat,” begins Gregory Phillip, also class of ’92 (South East Essex Sixth Form College). “Or, to make it clickbait: YOU WOnT BELIEVE THIS STAT ABOUT MARK WILLIAMS!!! If he wins, he will obliterate the record for longest gap between first and last world championship wins, even going back to the Joe & Fred Davis challenger era.
In fact, he’s already equalled the longest span between final appearances at 26 years: Fred Davis between 1940 and 1966. Williams is a marvel, and yet this could be the dawn of the Xintong era.”
I strongly fancy Zhao, I must say and, as I type, he outlasts Mark in a safety exchange – a very good sign –picking a plant to middle before beginning the routine task – for him – of clearing enough balls to take the frame.
Williams 0-1 Xintong (38-0) Mark breaks pack off black … and it doesn’t go well, so that’s end of break. Zhao, incidentally, plays that shot better than anyone I’ve ever seen, especially off that black – a harder task than from the other end, off the blue. Watch out for it as the match progresses.
Williams 0-1 Xintong (15-0) Zhao plays into the pack and back to baulk, leaving a red stuck to the side rail just above left corner. Mark didn’t turn many down against Judd but if he can’t force this home he’s leaving loads … but he does. Also in that match, though, both players missed balls you didn’t expect them to, often soon after nailing a banger … and as I type, TWPM jiggers one you don’t expect him to … then Zhao does the same, leaving a second chance for Mark to accumulate.
Williams 0-1 Xintong “He does look born to play here,” says Stephen, as Zhao clears the colours, adding a 77 to his 51, and his imperviousness to pressure is almost disquieting.
Williams 0-0 Xintong (0-65) Mark goes at a longun but can’t clip from middle to left corner, and that’ll surely be the frame.
Williams 0-0 Xintong (0-64) Email! “Battle of the dragons: Chinese v Welsh,” begins Andrew Goudie. “I hope they’ve invited Tony Drago(n) from Malta, also famous for having a dragon on its flag.” And the quickest player ever; him and Jimmy White were quite the doubles partnership. Anyroad, Zhao flukes a red, snuggles up to the brown, and Mark misses his escape … twice … thrice … before hitting. There are 85 points left on the table.
Williams 0-0 Xintong (0-51) The last qualifier to win the worlds was Shaun Murphy in 2025, but Zhao’s started like he means it. He breaks the pack nicely … then a lax positional shot means end of break; he does well not to attempt a wild pot, fired by disappointment, and to play a decent safety.
Williams 0-0 Xintong (0-22) “I’m always tinged with jealousy in my feelings when I’m in the box, not at the table,” says Stephen; the old mongrel never leaves. Then, off the break, Mark goes at a loose one, misses, and that is going to cost him. Zhao’s been so good in the balls this last fortnight, playing with rare power and precision, but the pressure he’s under now, seeking to become China’s first world champion, is of an entirely different order to anything he’s experienced before. But he seems entirely unaffected and already seems to fashioning a frame-winning opportunity.
Updated
Our boyz baize! I cannot wait for this, and what an atmosphere in the Cruce. Zhao and Mark shake hands over the little lady, then it’s time to get going, The Cyclone to break.
Rob Walker has on his best tweed three-piece – he’s just so simultanouelsy classy and zany, I thought to myself when I saw it – and he’ll soon have stopped banging on, allowing us to enjoy the match.
Our players are ready to come out. Zhao is 28 but could pass for 18; Mark is 50, but could easily pass for 55.
I’m watching on BBC because somehow it feels right, but if it’s serious analysis you’re after, TNT/Discovery do that much better.
Judd Trump, then. I must say i thought this time, more than any other time, he’d get it right. He’s been so, so good this season and, as the draw opened out, it became increasingly difficult to see who’d beat him – every time he was challenged before the semi, particularly against Luca Brecel in the last eight, he stomped on the gas and tore off into the distance. I actually thought, when he led 5-3 after the first session, that the lead would be definitive, because he’d hit a seam at some point in the second and full away. And you can be sure I said that in full knowledge of Mark J’s genius; I just relied on Judd’s being geniuser. It’s unbelievable that a player of his standard, who’s dominated the tour over several years, only has one of these; he’ll be back, and much as he protests to the contrary, he knows that the world title is the ultimate, however many various ranking titles he collects.
I see both sides.
Preamble
We say this every year, but it bears annual repetition. In life, there are few things – or people – or divinities – on which we can rely never, ever to disappoint us. But the World Snooker Championships are one such, and the last fortnight has bestowed upon us another jazzer.
That’s not to say it’s the same vibe every year, far from it. Once upon a time, this tournament confirmed the identity of the best player in the world – Steve Davis through the 80s, Stephen Hendry the 90s – but now, though Judd Trump has dominated the last few years, he’s won this trophy only once because he standard is so high anyone in the field can beat anyone else in the field.
As such, we’ve had six different world champions in the last seven years, three of them first-time winners. It’s unlikely many, if any of us, expected to spend the bank holiday weekend obsessed with Zhao Xintong v Mark J Williams.
Which is to say that nowadays, our tournament does still confirms the identity of the best player in the world, but only during these last two weeks. In theory, this is a lesser outcome – our players come and go, so don’t represent our family heritage in the way our teams do – but in practice, even individual sport isn’t solely about facts, rather about people and their stories, which exist in thrillingly inexhaustible supply.
In any case, it doesn’t really make sense to say Mark J Williams comes and goes, given he first contested a final in 1999, then picked up the pot in 2000. Except it also kind of does, given he was set to quit the game in 2018, disgusted by the waning of his considerable powers. But his wife, Jo, persuaded him to continue, he miraculously, affirmingly, snaffled the title for the third time, and since then has re-established himself as part of the elite, a one-off technician with a unique snooker brain, and one of the greatest big-match temperaments we’ve ever seen – in any sport. Already an indisputable great of the game, a fourth biggun would take him level with John Higgins and Mark Selby in the all-time list and make him the oldest world champ ever; what honours those’d be.
Standing in his way, though, is a redemption tale of mythological proportions. Zhao Xintong exploded into our consciousness in 2021-22, winning the UK Championships followed by the German Masters six weeks later. His long-to-mid-range potting was barely believable in the ferocity of its accuracy, so too his coruscating calm … and then, in 2023, he was suspended pending a match-fixing investigation, eventually receiving a 20-month ban for being party to another player fixing two matches and betting on matches himself. No, it wasn’t pretty; yes, he was young.
Since returning to the game, Zhao has devastated almost everything in his path – most recently Ronnie O’Sullivan – and arrives at this final in sensational form. But Mark J has made a career out of extinguishing exactly that, so turn on the telly, draw the curtains, and for the next two days, shut out everything that isn’t this. You’ll not regret it.
Start: 1pm BST
Updated
