Zhao Xintong played marvellous snooker in the 2025 World Snooker Championship Final to become the first ever Chinese World Champion. He beat Mark Williams by 18-12 in the Final at the Crucible Theatre yesterday evening.
Jubilant Zhao Makes History As First World Champion From China
Zhao Xintong registered a seismic moment in snooker history as he became the first Chinese player to conquer the Crucible, beating Mark Williams 18-12 in the final of the Halo World Championship.
In a final which was one-sided until a rousing finish, 28-year-old Zhao surged into a 7-1 advantage in the opening session and went on to lead 11-6 and 17-8 at the end of the next two sessions. Williams threatened an all-time unique fight-back when he recovered to 17-12, but Zhao eventually clinched the result in frame 30 with a break of 87 to capture the famous trophy and £500,000 top prize.
Since the emergence of Ding Junhui as a force 20 years ago, the question of when – and whether – a Chinese player would capture the sport’s biggest prize has been asked repeatedly. Now we have the answer and Zhao is the man who has broken the frontier. And it is fitting that he has done so in a season where three other Chinese players have won ranking titles, and ten were among the 32 players who started out at the Crucible 17 days ago. Zhao will instantly become a megastar in his homeland and an inspiration to tens of millions of young fans who watch and play snooker.
“For the sport, Zhao winning it could be huge, it could open floodgates everywhere,” said Williams at the end of the final. “We have a new superstar. It’s what snooker needed, someone like him to come through. He will be a great World Champion. He is probably the best potter I have ever seen, I have nothing but admiration for him. He has bashed everyone up including Ronnie and me. Just watch him because he could dominate, or at least give Judd Trump and Kyren Wilson a run for their money.”
The Overseas Crucible Champions
Zhao Becomes Fifth Non-British Winner
1980 Cliff Thorburn (Canada) 1997 Ken Doherty (Ireland) 2010 Neil Robertson (Australia) 2023 Luca Brecel (Belgium) 2025 Zhao Xintong (China)
Born in Xi’an in the Shaanxi province, Zhao spent his eighth birthday watching Ding win the 2005 China Open. By his early teens he was beating pro players in exhibitions, and first turned pro in 2016, moving to Sheffield where he still lives, within walking distance of the Crucible. In 2021 his major breakthrough came as he won the UK Championship and climbed into the top 16, soon doubling his tally of ranking titles at the 2022 German Masters. He was subsequently banned for 20 months for breaching betting regulations, but dedicated himself to practice during that period and regained his tour card via the Q Tour. Currently still an amateur, Zhao was awarded a place in the first qualifying round of this event and has grasped that opportunity.
With a marvellous attacking style and cue power reminiscent of a young Jimmy White, Zhao is a devastating long potter and break-builder, and has added tactical maturity to his game with a decade of experience. Across the event he made 18 centuries, equalling the record set by Ding in 2016. His most impressive asset is his unflappable nature on centre stage – indeed he was barely fazed by ties against all-time greats Ronnie O’Sullivan in the semi-finals and Williams in the final. Arguably now the most exciting player on the planet, Zhao could continue to improve in the coming years and establish himself as a leading contender for every major title.
He becomes the third qualifier – after Terry Griffiths in 1979 and Shaun Murphy in 2005 – to go all the way to the trophy, and sets a new record for the most matches won en route to the title, having scored four victories in the qualifying rounds and five more at the Crucible. He is the first amateur to win a ranking event, and the youngest World Champion since Murphy.
Zhao becomes the 24th player to lift the trophy at the Crucible and the first Asian. Currently unranked, he will jump to 11th in the Johnstone’s Paint World Rankings at the start of next season, and indeed will be seeded second for most events as World Champion.
Williams, the oldest Crucible finalist at the age of 50, misses out on a fourth world crown which would have matched the tallies of John Higgins and Mark Selby. A 17-14 victory over world number one Judd Trump on Saturday was one of his best of recent years, but perhaps left him jaded for the first session of the final, and the veteran Welshman was unable to recover. The £200,000 runner-up prize lifts him to third in the world, a remarkable position for a player who turned professional five years before Zhao was even born.
Trailing 17-8 coming into the fourth and final session and playing for pride, Williams made a break of 101 in the opener tonight, his first century of the final. He added the next in two scoring visits, then early in frame 28 Zhao missed a tricky red on 6 and Williams replied with 96 to close the gap to 17-11. A massive fluke on a red in the next set Williams up for a break of 73 to take the session to an interval. In frame 30, Williams had one more chance to extend the fight back, but missed a red to a top corner on 8 and this time Zhao took his chance.
Across the final, Zhao compiled breaks of 51, 77, 100, 57, 104, 83, 71, 56, 96, 71, 58, 52, 67 and 87.
“I can’t believe it, I’m very excited,” said Zhao after draping himself in a Chinese flag. “I was so nervous tonight. Mark is still a top player and put me under so much pressure. I will have a good drink tonight! Thank you to everyone in the crowd. It feels like a dream. Thank you to my parents, (manager) Victoria, my girlfriend, my coach when I was young, to WST, WPBSA and the CBSA academy.
“I knew if I missed then Mark would come back quickly. I had to really concentrate and be careful. In the last frame I just wanted to clean up the table, then I was very happy. When we shook hands I was nearly crying. It’s very good for Chinese snooker and I am happy I have done this for the people there. I hope it will give power to the young players. I don’t know how I have played so well here, I didn’t believe I could become World Champion this year, I am so proud of myself. I will take the trophy home to China and show it to my parents and friends.”
Williams added: “I was never in the final from the start, it was the only match where I didn’t play well. I’ve had really tough, close matches. If I had got out of the first session 5-3 that would have been a result, but unfortunately it was 7-1. I gave it a go tonight but I was too far behind. I gave it my best and left nothing out there. I’m disappointed but it has been a great tournament. When I came down the stairs, the ovation was so loud, it was brilliant.”
Zhao’s route to the title was extraordinary, and even that word isn’t sufficient to express the real nature of this achievement. Zhao was banned. He didn’t fix any match but he did bet on snooker and failed to report intended match fixing situations he became aware of. When his ban finished, he re-qualified for the main tour via the Q-Tour. He won four events on the spin… His excellence in the Q-Tour earned him an invitation to the World Championship qualifiers, starting in the very first round, he went all the way, and yesterday he won the event, conquered the title, playing with brilliance and an iron will to win. No player ever did something quite like that before. Of course, he isn’t the first qualifier to win the World Championship, but none of the “previous” had to overcome as many obstacles as Zhao did, on and off the table, to achieve the feat.
It is to be admired … and still … there were corners on social media going on about his alleged past match fixing and hinting that he shouldn’t have been allowed to play ever again. WPBSA findings were that Zhao did NOT fix any match, he failed to report match fixing cases he was aware of and he did bet on snooker but he did NOT fix any match himself. He served his ban, continued to train and work whilst serving it, qualified on merit and won on merit. That’s it. That’s all there is to know. He’s a worthy World Champion, and he won it with style and panache!
PS … if you wonder why I’m only posting about this now and not earlier today … it’s because I was on planes, trains, and the road… en route to Sheffield, traveling from Santorini . The 2025 World Seniors Snooker Championship starts tomorrow at the Crucible and I’ll be there, with my camera…
During his first Q Tour event, Zhao lost to Craig Steadman. Nothing against Mr. Steadman but… He then went on to win four Q Tour events on the bounce, regained his tour card and earned an invitation to the Worlds. Then – having played nary a professional match for two years – he climbed that mountain, played a staggering 172 frames, and won 111 of these along with the title.
How the young man was still able to stand, let alone see straight, let alone focus after all this, I have not the faintest idea.
All the best to him!
Now, whether he remains the humble, friendly, respectful lad, or transforms into something way worse, as is usually the case once success, fame and fortune strike, we shall see.
Long way ahead. He has at least 10+ years. (comparing to Ding)
Just hope he don’t stay away from snooker like Ding and Ronnie.
Or I say in a better way: He should have a better balance of business obligations and snooker.
Ronnie appeared Wynn in Macau several times a year. (between events. sincerely hope Xintong does not always go with Ronnie 0_0)
I would be surprised if he didn’t play in everything. He’s not in the same situation as Ronnie or Ding and we can’t compare really. Ding now has a young family, he doesn’t need the money and probably doesn’t want his children growing without their father at their side. Ronnie will be 50 in December, he’s won everything many times, he has nothing to prove … and has been battling depression for many years. He already had a “palmares” many players would be proud of before Zhao was even born.
About Wang problem, normally parents have bigger authority over their kid (in Selby’s word: They don’t respect me!) in China
So Zhao definitely has good parents.
Staurt Bingham was banned due to betting on snooker matches involving himself and other players. Jamie Jones was banned due to not reporting fix match approaching to himself. To be honest to me people are more forgiving to SB and JJ than ZX. I hate to bring this up again for SB and JJ as they already paid for what they had done, but it is very unfair people using different standard to judge ZX.
You haven’t commented on this as yet, Monique, but if the World Seniors Championship is shown on (British) Channel 5 only, then I suppose it can be watched just in the UK. I tried to check on this, and as far as I can find Channel 5 is owned by Paramount, which has MTV, Nickleodeon and similar channels as its outlets but not anything resembling Channel5 in other countries, at least not in Scandinavia (I’m from Sweden).
Sorry for not replying earlier but it would not have helped anyway. I was on site taking pictures and there was a TV crew filming. I know those cameramen fairly well, but they almost certainly know nothing about availability in various countries. There aren’t many who actually film snooker and the same guys are behind the cameras wether it’s BBC, Eurosport, MTV or any other broadcaster, but they aren’t employees of any of those broadcasters.
Thanks
Thanks for your reply, Monique! I have subsequently noted that at least some (maybe all) matches have been put up on Youtube. This perhaps is partly due to them only being able to stream from Channel 5, and that you would have had to use a VPN connection to watch that channel outside UK (I did not try to do that).
He was part of a big team of cheating players. It is impossible to establish all of his violations. Reputation damaged forever.
One of the pillars of any true justice system, is that you are innocent until proven guilty. Zhao was not found guilty of fixing any match.I hate the very idea of “collective punishment”. It’s totally unfair and lazy. My parents used to apply that. I was punished more often for things I hadn’t done, for things that often I had even tried to prevent than for things I had actually done. And it wasn’t a “team”. It was a group of Chinese players, many having known each other since they were children, who, because they were forced to live in a foreign country, away from their families, tended to stick together. “Forced” by the UK centric organisation “WORLD” snooker continues to apply and enforce. If Brits were forced to live in China, do you think they wouldn’t stick together? Of course they would. It’s a normal human behaviour.
Dear Monique, at the time of the violations he was not 14, not 18 or 20 years old. An adult, earning big prize money.
The second big problem: being a public figure, he did not make any loud apologies to the people who supported him. He simply used the European Q-tour to return. In his homeland he is still disqualified.
Actually apparently he did issue an apology after the ban.
Announcement from Zhao Xintong following his ban
Following the official announcement of his ban, Zhao Xintong published a long social media post.
Translation of some key parts here:
In the last few months, I have been regretting my mistakes every day. I am sorry.
Living alone overseas (in the UK) was boring, in a closed life, and I stupidly chose betting to spend some time (due to boredom). I did not realise that betting influenced me like a monster… I have never attempted to manipulate any snooker games, and I know that is forbidden. When close friend offered me to help me bet, I was not brave enough to say no, and did not report that to WPBSA. I naively thought that I only responded to a good friend’s request, and I never received or profitted from this at all. I paid big price for my stupidity and spent every day in remorse.
Since the ban, I have received support and help from WPBSA to tackle my mental and personal weaknesses. I am eternally grateful for you all who believe that I would be able to come back as a clean man.
You cherish after you lose. No words can describe my love for Snooker. Let me prove to you with better results as a new person.
Zhao Xintong
He did serve his ban, played well and won fair and square, although I will never admire him for so to speak overcoming his difficulties, because they were self-inflicted and being banned is not a merit.
What should change is the policy of the organizers: I find it outrageous that they don’t reimburse any from the tickets for the empty session and to add insult to injury, organized an exhibition of the blasted black ball contest,
Yes, it was his small post on a Chinese social network. Not a video message, not an interview with the press. And those ridiculous words about boredom…
Regarding the failed session: people wrote that such a case was prescribed by the ticket seller.
I know it was the ticket seller’s condition, but it’s still wrong and should be changed.
Dear Monique,
I have been living in the UK for five years, since the tender age of 19. I have never once been bored. What I did was master the English language and even the local North East dialect. I made British friends and internalized British culture, instead of seeking the company of my own compatriots. To “stick together” is NOT human nature, it’s a lazy, ignorant and overly nationalistic CHOICE. It is also a choice to break the law out of “boredom” instead of enjoying the privileges of living in the UK. You know, go to the pub, go for a hike in the Peak District, go see a play. This guy has all the talent in the world, but as far as I’m concerned he’s done it all wrong. Now I do think he should be forgiven but it should not be forgotten.
What I am, in fact, very bored of is all the excuses.
Santino, you are both rigth and wrong… let me explain. I’m not sure what your native language is, but I suppose it’s an “european” language. You certainly invested in learning English and making the effort to integrate in the local community. I did the same. I now live in Greece.I’m a native French speaker. I learned the language, that uses a different alphabet as you probably know and I’m now well liked in my village. But the Chinese lads are in a different situation. Their language has a completely different structure than the European languages. So it’s harder for them. That said Zhao speaks English to a reasonably decent level. But that is probably not the main problem. Some years ago I went to China as a photographer. I attended the Shanghai Masters and then went to an APTC in Yixing, Ding’s native city. The people in the hotel and at the venue were friendly BUT … things changed when I tried to chat with Wang Yuchen. Wang is from Hong Kong, but he was still a young amateur then, and a member of a group of gifted boys aspiring to become snooker players. Lyu Haotian was part of the group too. Wang was the only boy in that group who spoke English. I didn’t ask any sensitive questions. We spoke about his aspirations, how he tried to juggle his snooker and his studies as his father wanted him to get a university degree… nothing political. And yet that created a big problem. I was told that I can’t do this and Wang was reprimanded. I’m not sure at all how “free” the Chinese players really are when it comes to getting integrated in the local community. Maybe Lewis can tell us more.
Yan is much more to blame.
Not only being top16, but also abused “friendship” (Zhao to bet)and betrayal of wife(personal thought: extra money for mistress)… definitely not welcomed.
Hope, he won’t attempt a comeback.
Enjoy Sheffield and the Championship, Monique. Looking forward to your photos.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Chinese exhibition-day2:
Mark J Williams v Mark Selby:
Judd Trump v Kyren Wilson:
https://www.douyin.com/video/7503225141439073594
https://www.douyin.com/video/7503198252114152743
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5164783385445372
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5165122993787187
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5165170184686516
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5165193303688826
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5165229118590414
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5165135875280856
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5165250808121698
Other exhibitions:
Chinese exhibition day1 matches:
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5164783385445372
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5164648794162489
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5164896069878849
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5164427630087192
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5164006206605328
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5164073399354463
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5164502388576394
During his first Q Tour event, Zhao lost to Craig Steadman. Nothing against Mr. Steadman but… He then went on to win four Q Tour events on the bounce, regained his tour card and earned an invitation to the Worlds. Then – having played nary a professional match for two years – he climbed that mountain, played a staggering 172 frames, and won 111 of these along with the title.
How the young man was still able to stand, let alone see straight, let alone focus after all this, I have not the faintest idea.
All the best to him!
Now, whether he remains the humble, friendly, respectful lad, or transforms into something way worse, as is usually the case once success, fame and fortune strike, we shall see.
Long way ahead. He has at least 10+ years. (comparing to Ding)
Just hope he don’t stay away from snooker like Ding and Ronnie.
Or I say in a better way: He should have a better balance of business obligations and snooker.
Ronnie appeared Wynn in Macau several times a year. (between events. sincerely hope Xintong does not always go with Ronnie 0_0)
I would be surprised if he didn’t play in everything. He’s not in the same situation as Ronnie or Ding and we can’t compare really. Ding now has a young family, he doesn’t need the money and probably doesn’t want his children growing without their father at their side. Ronnie will be 50 in December, he’s won everything many times, he has nothing to prove … and has been battling depression for many years. He already had a “palmares” many players would be proud of before Zhao was even born.
About Wang problem, normally parents have bigger authority over their kid (in Selby’s word: They don’t respect me!) in China
So Zhao definitely has good parents.
Staurt Bingham was banned due to betting on snooker matches involving himself and other players. Jamie Jones was banned due to not reporting fix match approaching to himself. To be honest to me people are more forgiving to SB and JJ than ZX. I hate to bring this up again for SB and JJ as they already paid for what they had done, but it is very unfair people using different standard to judge ZX.
You haven’t commented on this as yet, Monique, but if the World Seniors Championship is shown on (British) Channel 5 only, then I suppose it can be watched just in the UK. I tried to check on this, and as far as I can find Channel 5 is owned by Paramount, which has MTV, Nickleodeon and similar channels as its outlets but not anything resembling Channel5 in other countries, at least not in Scandinavia (I’m from Sweden).
Sorry for not replying earlier but it would not have helped anyway. I was on site taking pictures and there was a TV crew filming. I know those cameramen fairly well, but they almost certainly know nothing about availability in various countries. There aren’t many who actually film snooker and the same guys are behind the cameras wether it’s BBC, Eurosport, MTV or any other broadcaster, but they aren’t employees of any of those broadcasters.
Thanks
Thanks for your reply, Monique! I have subsequently noted that at least some (maybe all) matches have been put up on Youtube. This perhaps is partly due to them only being able to stream from Channel 5, and that you would have had to use a VPN connection to watch that channel outside UK (I did not try to do that).
He was part of a big team of cheating players. It is impossible to establish all of his violations. Reputation damaged forever.
One of the pillars of any true justice system, is that you are innocent until proven guilty. Zhao was not found guilty of fixing any match.I hate the very idea of “collective punishment”. It’s totally unfair and lazy. My parents used to apply that. I was punished more often for things I hadn’t done, for things that often I had even tried to prevent than for things I had actually done. And it wasn’t a “team”. It was a group of Chinese players, many having known each other since they were children, who, because they were forced to live in a foreign country, away from their families, tended to stick together. “Forced” by the UK centric organisation “WORLD” snooker continues to apply and enforce. If Brits were forced to live in China, do you think they wouldn’t stick together? Of course they would. It’s a normal human behaviour.
Dear Monique, at the time of the violations he was not 14, not 18 or 20 years old. An adult, earning big prize money.
The second big problem: being a public figure, he did not make any loud apologies to the people who supported him. He simply used the European Q-tour to return. In his homeland he is still disqualified.
Actually apparently he did issue an apology after the ban.
Announcement from Zhao Xintong following his ban
Following the official announcement of his ban, Zhao Xintong published a long social media post.
Translation of some key parts here:
In the last few months, I have been regretting my mistakes every day. I am sorry.
Living alone overseas (in the UK) was boring, in a closed life, and I stupidly chose betting to spend some time (due to boredom). I did not realise that betting influenced me like a monster… I have never attempted to manipulate any snooker games, and I know that is forbidden. When close friend offered me to help me bet, I was not brave enough to say no, and did not report that to WPBSA. I naively thought that I only responded to a good friend’s request, and I never received or profitted from this at all. I paid big price for my stupidity and spent every day in remorse.
Since the ban, I have received support and help from WPBSA to tackle my mental and personal weaknesses. I am eternally grateful for you all who believe that I would be able to come back as a clean man.
You cherish after you lose. No words can describe my love for Snooker. Let me prove to you with better results as a new person.
Zhao Xintong
He did serve his ban, played well and won fair and square, although I will never admire him for so to speak overcoming his difficulties, because they were self-inflicted and being banned is not a merit.
What should change is the policy of the organizers: I find it outrageous that they don’t reimburse any from the tickets for the empty session and to add insult to injury, organized an exhibition of the blasted black ball contest,
Yes, it was his small post on a Chinese social network. Not a video message, not an interview with the press. And those ridiculous words about boredom…
Regarding the failed session: people wrote that such a case was prescribed by the ticket seller.
I know it was the ticket seller’s condition, but it’s still wrong and should be changed.
Dear Monique,
I have been living in the UK for five years, since the tender age of 19. I have never once been bored. What I did was master the English language and even the local North East dialect. I made British friends and internalized British culture, instead of seeking the company of my own compatriots. To “stick together” is NOT human nature, it’s a lazy, ignorant and overly nationalistic CHOICE. It is also a choice to break the law out of “boredom” instead of enjoying the privileges of living in the UK. You know, go to the pub, go for a hike in the Peak District, go see a play. This guy has all the talent in the world, but as far as I’m concerned he’s done it all wrong. Now I do think he should be forgiven but it should not be forgotten.
What I am, in fact, very bored of is all the excuses.
Santino, you are both rigth and wrong… let me explain. I’m not sure what your native language is, but I suppose it’s an “european” language. You certainly invested in learning English and making the effort to integrate in the local community. I did the same. I now live in Greece.I’m a native French speaker. I learned the language, that uses a different alphabet as you probably know and I’m now well liked in my village. But the Chinese lads are in a different situation. Their language has a completely different structure than the European languages. So it’s harder for them. That said Zhao speaks English to a reasonably decent level. But that is probably not the main problem. Some years ago I went to China as a photographer. I attended the Shanghai Masters and then went to an APTC in Yixing, Ding’s native city. The people in the hotel and at the venue were friendly BUT … things changed when I tried to chat with Wang Yuchen. Wang is from Hong Kong, but he was still a young amateur then, and a member of a group of gifted boys aspiring to become snooker players. Lyu Haotian was part of the group too. Wang was the only boy in that group who spoke English. I didn’t ask any sensitive questions. We spoke about his aspirations, how he tried to juggle his snooker and his studies as his father wanted him to get a university degree… nothing political. And yet that created a big problem. I was told that I can’t do this and Wang was reprimanded. I’m not sure at all how “free” the Chinese players really are when it comes to getting integrated in the local community. Maybe Lewis can tell us more.
Yan is much more to blame.
Not only being top16, but also abused “friendship” (Zhao to bet)and betrayal of wife(personal thought: extra money for mistress)… definitely not welcomed.
Hope, he won’t attempt a comeback.
Enjoy Sheffield and the Championship, Monique. Looking forward to your photos.